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THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 



% 



ITiteraii auJr fibtarial Curio^iti^^. 



BY F. SAUNDERS, 

ATTTUOK OF "SALAD FOR THE SOLITARY," ETC., ETC. 



• I pray you let us satisfy our eyes 
AVith tlie memorials and the things of fame 
That do renown this city." 




NEW YORK: 
KIGGINS AND KELLOGG. 

1854 . 



♦ Entered nccorditi;,' to Act of Congress, iii the yeiir 1854, 

By Kiggins and Kkllogo, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern Di«- 
trict of Now York. 



OF CONGRESS?! 
JiiiHlWOTOKi 



^A^ 






Printed and Slereottped by Billin aAd Brothers, 20 Xurth William St., If. Y. 



TO THE READER. 



The intention of this voliime is to furnish a compact 
Manual for persons visiting the British Metropolis, or who 
contemplate making the transatlantic tour. It is the first 
book of the kind published in this country, and it dif- 
fei-s from ordinary Guide-books, in its indicating in a 
brief, suggestive way, the numerous shrines of genius, his- 
torical localities, and various memorabiha of London. More 
than any other city of Europe, the British capital abounds 
with " nooks and cornei-s" and the memorials of the great 
and good of past times ; and it is this precise kind of informa- 
tion — which the lover of hterature and the intelligent tourist 
most desires, but which is usually inaccessible — that the 
present Manual is intended to supply. In a word, it will 
exhibit London, past and present., at one view. 



vi TO THE READER. 

In the preparation of this Httle volume, the compiler 
has collated the best authorities for the verification of facts 
and dates ; and he hereby gratefully acknowledges his obli- 
gations to the valuable works of Cunningham, Knight, 
Jesse, Leigh Hunt, Mackay, etc., — whose important anti- 
quarian researches have so materially tended to render this 
"City of the World" conspicuous in the annals of Time, 
above any of the capitals of the classic ages. 

F. S. 



CONTENTS. 



Paoji 
Chapter I.— Introductory— Historic and Literary Associations— Roman Lon- 
don—Ancient City Boundaries and Forts— Present Extent— Social Condi- 
tion— Local Casualties in Early Times—Modem Architectural Improve- 
ments—Physical Aspect of the City, etc. ..... 7 

Chapter II. — Apsley Hous&— The Iron Duke— Earl of Elgin's House— Bath 
House— Devonshire House— Pulteney Hotel— House of Murray, the Pub- 
lisher—Burlington House— the Albany. . . . , .27 

Chapter III.— St. James's-street— Crockford's, the Travellers', and other Club 
Houses- The Clubs of Johnson's Days— Drawing Room Day at St. James's 
— Bridgevcater House— Stafford House— Rogers's House— Johnson and 
Savage— Pall Mall— Charles II.— Dodsley— St. James's Palace — Bucking- 
ham Palace— Royal Procession to Parliament- St. James's Pjirk- Milton's 
House— Peace Celebration— the Horse Guards, etc. . . . .86 

Chapter IV.— The Admiralty— The Horse Guards— Whitehall Chapel— The 
Treasury— Downing-street- Westminster Abbey— Henry VII. 's Chapel- 
Poets' Comer— Chapel of St. Edward the Confessor— Funeral Obsequies 
of Cromwell— The Sanctuary— St. Margaret's Church— Westminster Hall 
and its Historical Associations— Palace Yard— Execution of Sir Walter 
Raleigh— The Star Chamber, and Courts of Law 66 

Chapter V,— The New Houses of Parliament— Interior View— Vauxh^iU— 
Lambeth Palace— Lollards' Tower— Westminster Bridge— King-street-Sir 
Robert Peel's House— Charing Cross— Equestrian Statue of Charles I.— 
Statue of George HI.— Scotland Yard— British Institution— The National 
Gallery— Northumberland House— Craven-street— Norfolk-street-- Denham 
House— The Adelphi— Salisbury-street— The Savoy— Waterloo Bridge— 
Burleigh House. ........ 91 

1 



4t CONTENTS. 

Chapter VI.— Bow-street— Covent Garden— Arecdote of Dryden and Tonson 
—St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden— The Garrick Club— Will's Coflee 
House and others— Somerset House — King's College— St. Clement Dane's 
—Lincoln's Inn Square— Lincoln's Inn Fields— Execution of Lord William 
Russell — The Soane Museum — Franklin's Printing Office— Temple Bar, 
Ancient Custom of Closing the Gates- Booksellers of Early Times— Dr. 
Johnson's Residences— Child's Banking House .... 118 

ChapterVII.— Ticket Porters— The Temple— Temple Church— Hall of Mid- 
die Temple— Anecdotes of Goldsmith and Johnson— St. Punstan's Church 
—Bolt Court— Booksellers of Fleet-street— St. Bride's Church— Salisbury- 
square— Bridewell— Monastery of the Black Friars— Blackfriars' Bridge 
—Play-house Yard— Printing-house Square— the " Times "—6aynard 
Castle— Ludgate Hill— Old Bailey— Green Arbor Court— St, Sepulchre*s 
Church- Stationers' Hall— Paternoster Row— The Chapter Coffee House 
— Panyer Alley— Warwick Lane — Newgate Market. . . . 135 

Chapter VIII.— Johnson the Bookseller— St. Paul's Cathedral— Its Interior- 
Monuments— Anecdote of Dr. Donne— View from the Summit of St. Paul's 
— Anniversary of the Charity Children in St. Paul's— St. Paul's Church- 
yard— Eioctors' Commons— Heralds' College— St. Paul's School, Cheapside 
—Bread-street— Guildhall— The Poultry— Old Jewry— The Mansion House 
—Bank of England—St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook— Lombard-street— 
St. Mary's, Walworth— St. Olavfe's Church- St. Mary's, Aldermanbury 
—St. Magnus'— St. Augustine's— The Royal E.xchange— Lloyds'— The 
North and South American Cotfee House— Garraway's Coffee House- 
Pope's Head Alley— St. Peter's, Corn hi 11— South Sea House— Aldgate— 
East India House. ........ 154 

Chapter IX.— London Stone— Anecdote of Jack Cade— Cannon-street— The 
Boar's Head— Eastcheap— London Bridge— Historical Sketch of London 
Bridge— Winchester Palace— St. Saviour's Church— The Ladye Chapel— 
The Globe Theatre— The Bear Gardens— Barclay and Perkins's Brewery— 
The Tabard— Rermondsey Abbey— Guy's Hospital— The Monument— 
Billingsgate—St. Michael's Church— Church of St. Mlry-at-Hill— The 
Custom iiouse— New Coal Exchange— Tower-Hill, its Memories— The 
Tower of London, its History — The Armory — Jewel House— Record Office 
— dueenhithe— The Royal Mint. ... ... 177 

Chapter X. — Strefet Organists — The Thames Tunnel— London Docks— Dept- 
ford and Woolwich — Greenwich Hospital— Crutclied Friars — The Mino- 
ries— Lord Cobham— East Smithfield— Ratcliffe Highway— Aldgate — 
Whitechapel—Bishopsgate-street— Crosby- Hall— St. Giles's, Cripplegate — 



CONTENTS. g 

Barbican— Moorfields—Finsbary-sqnare—Banhill Field3~Ba tie Bridge- 
Old St. Pancras~Islington— Canonbury House— Collins's Ho:we — Charles 
Lamb's Cottage— Chalk Farm— St. James's Chapel— Hampstcad—Kensal 
Green Cemetery— Highgate—Harrow-on-the-Hill— Aylesbury -street, Clerk- 
enwell— Anecdote of Thomas Britton— Old-street Road— St. Botolph's 
Church— Little Britain and its Booksellers— The Post Office.. . . 199 

Uhaptkr XI.— Christ's Hospital— St. John's Gate— Pie Comei^Smithfield— St. 
Bartholomew's Church and Hospital— Ely Place and House— Hatton Gar- 
den—Edward Irving— St. Andrew's Church— The Blue Boar— Fleur-de- 
lys Court- Dwelling-place of Dryden— Thomas Chatterton— Gray's Inn 
and its distinguished Residents— Red Lion-street— Holbom—Black-Letter 
Booksellers— Great dueen-street- Anecdote of Dr. RadclifF and Sir God- 
frey Kneller— Leicester-square— St. Anne's Church, Soho— Prince's-street 
—St. Giles's— The British Museum— Bloomsbury-square—Newman-street 
— Argyll-street— Conduit-street — George-street, Hanover-square— Bond- 
street- Brooke-street- The Colosseum. ..... 217 

Chapter XII.— The Zoological Gardens— Royal Botanical Gardens, Regent's 
Park— Madame Tussaud's Exhibition— Gore House— Kensington Gardens 
and Palace— Holland House— Chelsea Hospital and Church- Battersea— 
Putney— Fnlham, and its Literary Celebrities— Chiswick House— Horticnl. 
tnral Gardens— Kew Church— Sion House— Isleworth Church— Richmond 
Park and Church— Strawberry Hill— Hampton Court Palace— Bushy Park- 
Eton College— St. George's Chapel— Windsor Castle— Concluaon. t 241 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The N'itw Houses of Parliament Frontispiece 

View of St. Paul's from the Thames Vignette 

Distant View of London Page 33 

Apsley House 29 

The Army and K'avy Club 41 

Bridgevtater House , 44 

Stafford House 47 

House of Samuel Rogers 49 

St. James's Palace 66 

Henry VH.'s Chapel 71 

Interior View 74 

Poets' Corner, "Westminster Abbey VT 

The Gateway of Lambeth Palace 96 

The Hall of Lambeth Palace 98 

House of Sir Robert Peel 101 

Somerset House 124 

Temple Bar 129 

The Temple Church 13*7 

Interior View 138 

St. Paul's from the Thames 146 



6 



St. Paul's Cathedral 156 

Interior View 161 

The Royal Exchange 171 

The East India House 176 

Custom House 189 

The Tower of London 194 

The Post Office 216 

St. Bartholomew's Church 221 

The British Museum 235 

CmswicK House 248 

Holland House . . • » 249 

Hampton Court 252 

Windsor Castle 259 

View from Windsor Park 262 



LONDON: 



CHAPTEE I. 



Introductory— Historic and Literary Associations— Eoman London— Ancient 
City Boundaries and Forts — Present Extent — Social Condition — Local 
Casualties in early Times — Modem Architectural Improvements — Physical 
Aspect of the City, etc. 

ONDOIST lias been not inaptly desig- 
nated the City of the World ; and 
it merits the distinction as well on 
account of its extent, and its opu- 
lence and splendour, as its rich his- 
torical and literary associations. 

Considering its vast extent, and its still 
increasing growth, London has suffered less 
spoliation from the touch of time, or the no 
less ruthless spirit of innovation, than any other 
city. It is on this account that it is regarded 
as an immense museum of the curious and the 
antique, as well as the emporium of modern 
art. The history of England being antecedent to, 
and part of our own, necessarily links that land 




to ours by the closest ties : all, therefore, that per- 
tains to the former, must ever enlist the sympathies 
of the latter. There is indeed connected with 
these mementoes of the i^ast, a strange fascination 
to the lover of his country, and its great men, and 
more especially is it so in all that concerns its 
authors. The several dwelling places of those 
who have enriched our literature, or illustrated 
the great moral maxims of life, become endeared 
to our hearts ; — these are the shrines consecrated 
by the genius loci, — they seem almost part and 
parcel of the departed. Home is the sanctuary 
of the affections, and it is the like influence of as- 
sociation that causes us to cherish the fond memo- 
rials of the benefactors of our race. What lover 
of Shakspeare, but would delight to linger with- 
in the precincts of the well-remembered ' Globe ' 
at Southwark, or the final resting place of the 
mighty bard of Avon? Who, in reading Chaucer's 
tales of the Canterbury Pilgrims, would not will- 
ingly perform a pilgrimage himself, that he might 
gaze upon the old Tahard. Or as we pore over 
the pleasant pages of Goldsmith, or become rapt 
in the lofty sublimities of Milton's spiritual ima- 
geries, — do we not instinctively long to catch a 
glimpse of the dingy abode of the former, in Green 
Arbor Court, or the several localities which the 



9 

genius of our modern Homer has rendered classic. 
With what a genial temper does Mrs. Hall apostro- 
phize on this subject : 

" O rare old London ! It would be difficult for 
us to describe the affection we entertain for this 
noble city — venerable for its antiquity, and re- 
vered for its associations with our great men — 
although it combines so much that occasions us 
distress of mind with so much that is dear and 
honored to our every feeling of existence. "We 
should never have loved it so well if we had not 
become acquainted with the histories of some of its 
public buildings, its houses, its holy temples, one by 
one, almost stone by stone ; and yet how little we 
know of what we might know, and of what we hope 
yet to learn. We marvel more and more how we 
could ever have passed a peculiar-looking house 
without inquiring, ' Who lived there V Certainly, 
we move through life very listlessly ; we go along 
its highways and into its by-lanes without being 
stirred by the immortality around us ; we close our 
eyes against the evidences of change which are the 
accompaniments of life ; and we plod on, of the 
earth — earthy, with little more than a fluttering 
effort to raise our minds by the contemplation of 
the acts of those glorious spirits who elevated 

England to the rank she holds among nations." 
1* 



10 

The Yatican boasts of its treasured relics of 
centuries ; and England possesses the collective 
resources of genius and learning. London has 
been styled the birth-place of genius — here the 
poet bias sung his sweetest strains — the historian 
and philosopher solved the deep problems of truth 
— it was here a Milton produced the sublimest of 
all uninspired compositions — a Shakspeare por- 
trayed, with such masterly power, the workings 
of the human heart ; here, too, ideal art has de- 
picted in glowing colors and with startling effect, 
the images of the soul ; and not least, though last, 
the mighty minds of old, who have contended for 
the truth of a pure Christianity. 

Leigh Hunt pleasantly says : " I can no more 
pass through Westminster without thinking of Mil- 
ton ; or the Borough, without thinking of Chaucer 
and Shakspeare ; or Gray's Inn, without calling 
Bacon to mind; or Bloomsbury -square, without 
Steele and Akenside ; than I can prefer brick and 
mortar to wit and poetry, or not see a beauty upon 
it beyond architecture in the splendor of the re- 
collection. I once had duties to perform which 
kept me out late at night, and severely taxed my 
health and spirits. My path lay through a neigh- 
borhood in which Dry den lived, and though 
nothing could be more common-place, and I used 



11 

to be tired to the heart and soul of me, I never 
hesitated to go a little out of the way, purely that 
I might pass through Gerard-street, and so give 
myself the shadow of a pleasant thought." 

" The love 
Of mighty minds doth hallow, in the core 
Of human hearts, the ruin of a wall 
Where dwelt the wise and wondrous." 

A few preliminary remarks touching the statis- 
tics of the city, and we commence our ad libitwm, 
perambulations in quest of these choice memorials 
of the gifted and the great : and in soliciting the 
reader to accompany us, we may be allowed to pre- 
mise that in our pleasant pursuit, we may have to 
pass through many sinuous streets and dark ignoble 
alleys, now almost impervious to the light of heaven. 

Next to old Rome, London boasts a greater 
antiquity than any of the existing Capitals of the 
world. It is commonly supposed that the Roman 
occupation of Britain formed but a brief episode 
in the history of the latter ; yet it is asserted by 
no less an authority than Camden, that it was a 
Roman tributary during four hundred and seventy- 
six years. Other historians insist that it existed 
nearly six centuries. Leaving such inquiries, how- 
ever, to be determined by more competent pens, 
we shall content ourself with merely picking up 



12 

by the way-side, whatever we may, of the shreds 
and patches of her histor}^, as they still exist in 
shattered stones, mouldering monuments, or dila- 
pidated dwelling-places. The most ancient relic 
of its Roman history is doubtless London Stone^ 
concerning which we shall speak hereafter more 
particularly. Some vestiges of the Roman wall 
have been at different times discovered within 
various sections of the ancient city limits. The 
four principal gates were the following : — Aldgate, 
on the east ; Bridgegate, on the south ; Newgate, 
on the west ; Aldersgate, on the north. There 
were others also, from which the names have 
descended, — Ludgate, Botolph-gate, Cripplegate, 
Temple-bar, Tower postern, Dowgate, and Billings- 
gate, or Belins-gate from its founder of that name, 
who flourished, according to redoubtable authori- 
ties, about the fourth century prior to the Chris- 
tian era. In early Roman records, the Thames is 
referred to as a very narrow tributary stream. 
The original site of the city was bounded on the 
south by the Thames, and on the north by the 
marshes, as is clearly indicated by the name still 
retained, Finsbury, from fens^ marshy ground. 
The distance from the Tower to Blackfriars is 
about a mile, so that Roman London was not of 
great extent. Fleet-street, so named from the 



13 

stream that formerly ran through it, was crossed by 
a bridge at the junction of Ludgate, which latter 
was a royal residence in the time of King John. 
On its site Bridewell was afterwards erected, and 
it was there Henry YIII. entertained Charles 
Y., in 1522. From being a royal residence it 
at length fell into disrepute, and was used as 
a prison for debtors and petty offenders. London, 
as to its name, according to the best authorities, 
is derived from Llyn — Din^ " the town on the 
lake." Caesar, who effected a landing on the 
island after a severe struggle in the year 53 B.C., 
is the first writer from whom any authentiG ac- 
counts of the ancient Britons have descended to 
us. Druidism obtained in all its horrors in ancient 
Britain, if it did not indeed originate there. 
' Stone-henge,' near Salisbury, is a proof of this. 
At the eastern extremity of ther city, on the banks 
of the Thames, stands the ancient Tower of Lon- 
don, built by Julius Caesar — the sanguinary memo- 
rial of the terrible despotisms and cruelties of the 
barbaric age. On the west, the venerable Abbey 
of Westminster rears itself in lofty and imposing 
grandeur, within whose mouldering arches repose 
the ashes of the mighty dead : while central to the 
city proper, rises the majestic cathedral of St. 
Paul, — ^with one solitary exception the most sym- 



14 

metrical and splendid temple in Christendom, 
whose colossal dome, peering through the dusky 
atmosphere, seems to keep saintly vigils over the 
vast metropolis. In juxtaposition with "West- 
minster Abbey, may be seen that sumptuous 
gothic pile, the new Houses of Parliament, in 
which the collective wisdom of a nation is con- 
vened, to arbitrate the destinies and enact the laws 
that govern the realm. This close proximity of 
Westminster Abbey with the two Houses of Par- 
liament seems to present a curious type of the 
union of Church and State. 

It is singular to reflect, that a little more than 
two centuries ago, it was deemed necessary by 
Queen Elizabeth, to issue a proclamation against 
the erection of any new buildings — the extent of 
the city, as it then existed, being considered by her 
ladyship as positively alarming. Queen Victoria, 
however, seems to entertain a very different opinion, 
for she not only permits the removal of dark and 
narrow alleys, which excluded the light of heaven, 
to make way for the erection of broad streets 
adorned with splendid edifices in their stead, but 
she has even added to the mammoth city during 
the last ten years, no less than two hundred miles 
of new streets ! It is estimated by Cunningham 
that if the streets of the Metropolis were put to- 



15 

gether they would extend to 3000 miles in length. 
The main thoroughfares are traversed by 3000 
omnibuses, and 3500 cabs (besides private car- 
riages and carts,) employing 40,000 horses. 

In addition to these noisy and thronged 
thoroughfares, we have what has been called " the 
silent highway" of the Thames, running through 
the heart of the Metropolis, and traversed continu- 
ally by hundreds of steamboats, which take up and 
set down passengers at the different places between 
Chelsea and Gravesend. 

So much for the internal communications of the 
Metropolis. Its connection with the provinces is 
kept up by the various railways which diverge 
from it in every direction. By means of these dif- 
ferent lines, along which the telegraph is laid down, 
the Metropolis is put in instant connection with 
upwards of a hundred of the chief cities and towns 
of the United Kingdom. The telegraph is also 
laid down beneath the streets between the City 
and the West End, a branch office being situated 
at the Strand, (sending a wire to the Government 
offices at Whitehall), From the London Bridge 
wharf and from the Tower-stairs, start the various 
Continental steamers. 

" By the latest returns," (we cite the testimony of 
a recent London journalist,) " the metropolis cover- 



16 

ed an extent of nearly forty-five thousand acres, 
and contained upward of three hundred thousand 
houses, occupied by about two million five hundred 
thousand souls ; constituting not only the densest, 
but the busiest hive, the most wondrous workshop, 
and the richest bank in the world. The mere name 
of London awakens a thousand trains of varied 
reflection. It is the focus of modern civilization — ■ 
the great capital of the world. To the west, it is 
a city of palaces, adorned with parks, and ennobled 
with triumphal arches, grand statues, and stately 
monuments ; to the east, it presents a labyrinth of 
narrow lanes, dingy counting-houses, and huge 
masses of warehouses, with doors and cranes rang- 
ed one above another, in towering succession. It 
is a vast brick en multitute — a strange incongruous 
chaos of wealth and want, ambition and despair — 
of the brightest charity and the darkest crime — 
where there are more houses and more houseless, 
more feasting and famishing, than upon any other 
spot on earth." Pampered luxury riots in prodi- 
gal excesses, and squalid poverty pines in pitiless 
penury and wretchedness. The opulent state of a 
coroneted aristocracy, and the wreck of the despis- 
ed and depraved children of poverty and crime, are 
there to be seen in glaring and painful contrast. 
In a word, London presents an epitome not only 



17 

of the nation, but of the world. Within its pre- 
cincts are to be found all classes and circles of life 
— ^the intellectual, moral, and social, as well as the 
untutored and debased^ — each revolving in its seve- 
ral sphere. It is the grand theatre of life, in which 
all imaginable characters severally enact their parts. 
The merchant, eager in his pursuit of gain, the 
hireling, bending under the pressure of his toil, the 
devotees of science and literature, busily intent 
upon exploring the mysteries of nature and art ; 
while the proud patrician, and the votaries of plea- 
sure, with butterfly wing, flutter and dazzle amid 
their splendor and luxury. 

Speaking of the entertainment the streets of the 
British Metropolis afforded him, Boswell remarks : 
" I have often amused myself with thinking how 
different a place London is, to different people. 
They whose narrow minds are contracted to the 
consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it 
only through that medium. A politician thinks of 
it only as the seat of government in its different de- 
partments ; a grazier, as a vast market for cattle ; a 
mercantile man, as a place where a prodigious deal 
of business is done upon 'Change ; a dramatic enthu- 
siast, as the grand scene ©f theatrical entertainments ; 
a man of pleasure, as an assemblage of taverns, &c. ; 
but the intellectual man is struck with it as com- 



18 

preheuding the whole of human life in all its vari- 
ety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible." 

London — opulent, enlarged, and still 
Increasing London ! Babylon of old, 
Not more the glory of the world than she, 
A more accomplished world's chief glory now. 

Before, however, we commence our perigrina- 
tions, we are tempted to give a recent sketch from 
one of the London papers, of the city as it pre- 
sents itself by night. " Those who have only seen 
London in the day-time, with its flood of life, rush- 
ing through its arteries to its restless heart, know 
it not in its grandest aspect. It is not in the noise 
and roar of the cataract of commerce pouring 
through its streets, nor in its forest of ships, nor in 
its vast docks and warehouses, that its true solemni- 
ty is to be seen. To behold it in its greatest subli- 
mity, it must be contemplated by night, afar off 
from an eminence. The noblest prospect in the 
world, it has been well said, is London viewed from 
the suburbs on a clear winter's evening. 

"The stars are shining in the heavens; but 
there is another firmament spread below, with its 
millions of bright lights glittering at our feet. Line 
after line sparkles, like the trails left by meteors, 
cutting and crossing one another, till they are lost 
in the haze of the distance. Over the whole there 



19 

hangs a lurid cloud, bright as if the monster city 
were in flames, and looking afar off like the sea by 
night, made phosphorescent by the million crea- 
tures dwelling within it. At night it is that the 
strange anomalies of London are best seen. Then, 
as the hum of life ceases, and shops darken, and 
the gaudy gin-palaces thrust forth their ragged, 
squalid crowds to pace the streets, London puts on 
its most solemn look of all. On the benches of the 
parks, in the niches of the bridges, and in the litter 
of the markets, are huddled together the homeless 
and the destitute. The only living things that 
haunt the streets, are the poor unfortunate beings, 
who stand shivering in their finery, waiting to 
catch the drunkard as he goes shouting homewards. 
Here on a door-step crouches some shoeless child, 
whose day's begging has not brought it enough to 
purchase even the two-penny bed that its young 
companions in beggary have gone to. There, where 
the stones are taken up and piled high in the road, 
and the gas streams from a tall pipe in the centre 
of the street in a flag of flame — there, round the 
red glowing coke ifi^-e, are grouped a ragged crowd, 
smoking or dozing through the night, beside it. 
Tlien, as the streets grow blue with the coming 
light, and the church spires and chimney tops 
stand out against the sky with a sharpness of out- 



20 

line that is seen only in London before its million 
fires cover the town with their pall of smoke — then 
come sauntering forth the unwashed poor, some 
with greasy wallets on their backs, to hunt over 
each dirt heap, and eke out life by seeking refuse 
bones, or stray rags and pieces of old iron : others 
on their way to their work, gathered at the corner 
of the street round the breakfast-stall, and blowing 
saucers of steaming coffee drawn from tall tin cans, 
with the fire shining crimson through the holes be- 
neath; whilst already the little slattern girl, with 
her basket slung before her, screams water-cresses 
through the sleeping streets. Yet who, to see the 
squalor and wretchedness of London by night, 
would believe that twenty-nine of the London 
bankers, have cleared as much as nine hundred 
and fifty-four million pounds sterling^ in one year^ 
the average being more than three millions of mo- 
ney daily — or that the loans of merel}^ one house 
in the city throughout the year exceed thirty mil- 
lions ! " 

Where London now stands, some sixteen or 
eighteen centuries back, stood an immense forest, 
extending from the Thames on one side, to Epping, 
and Hainault on the other. 

As far back as one thousand years — at which 
period the several Saxons kingdoms were amalga- 



21 

mated under Egbert, the first king of all England — 
London rose into importance as its capital. It was 
enclosed by walls, defended by strong bastions, 
and prepared for defence against Northern and 
other marauders. About this period the Thames 
extended over the low lands as far as Battle Bridge, 
passing between Jlolborn-Hill and Snow-Hill. 
Another part of it ran through, where now stands 
Bishopsgate, Moorgate, Walbrook and Dowgate, 
over which were wooden bridges. 

From the earliest times, London has suffered 
greatly both by fire ^ and pestilence. In Y60-Y65, 
and 793, it was nearly destroyed by fire. In 1563, 
twenty thousand persons were carried off by the 
plague ; in 1610, forty thousand, and in 1665, no 
less than eighty thousand persons fell victims to 
this visitation. Immediately after, occurred (in 
1666) the Great Fire of London, destroying nearly 
three-fourths of the city, and property to the 
amount, of ten millions sterling. 

London has also at times suffered from insur- 
rections and commotions within its walls ; in the 
reign of Eichard II., by Wat. Tyler ; in the reign 
of Henry YI., by Jack Cade, and in that of 
Charles I. between him and the Parliament, etc. 
It was also, in 1703, visited by a storm, which 
blew down two thousand chimneys, stripped the 



22 

lead off several churches, killed thirty or forty 
persons, sank four hundred vessels in the Thames, 
and caused a loss £2,000,000. 

Three hundred years ago, London was neither 
paved nor lighted, excepting a few lanterns sus- 
pended, as in some parts of Paris, across the road. 
East Smithfield was open to Tower Hill, Moor- 
fields was open to the small village of Huxton, 
and Finsbury fields were covered with wind-mills. 
St. Giles's was in the fields, and the Strand had 
gardens on each side. Convent-Garden was really 
the garden of a Convent. Westminster was a very 
small town ; Southwark only a few streets, (dull, 
dirty, and cheerless,) and Lambeth a little village 
near the Thames. Still in those days, England 
could muster a large army, and had afforded con- 
siderable assistance to the different sovereigns of 
Europe. — And this was London of the olden time. 

The improvements of London began in the 
reign of George II. — Squares were made, streets 
formed, churches erected, Westminster Bridge 
built, the houses on London bridge pulled down, 
and most of the city gates removed. 

Assuming the area of London to be nineteen 
square miles, it yields a population to each mile of 
very nearly 130,000 human creatures, perform- 
ing within that narrow limit, all the operations of 



23 

life and death, mixed up in a fearful melee of pas- 
sion and interest, luxury and starvation, hard work 
and indolence ; besides an infinity of occupations, 
useful, ornamental and mischievous. In the more 
densely populated J'egions, ^e average is doubled. 
A quarter of a million of souls subsisting within 
the limits of a square mile, is a spectacle that can- 
not be rendered intelligible by written description. 
The magnitude of its wretchedness baffles us. In- 
dividual cases of extreme suffering move our sym- 
pathies, but as their number is increased, the dis- 
tinctness of misery diminishes in its influence. 

People of rank and fashion in former times oc- 
cupied the side of the river Thames, the Strand, 
Dfury Lane, and the neighborhood of Convent 
Garden, which were tlren unenclosed fields ; and 
in that neighborhood was built, by Inigo Jones, a 
chm*ch in the pure Tuscan style, at that period 
the only one in England. Merchants resided 
between Temple-bar and the Exchange. Despera- 
does, broken-down spendthrifts, and criminals of 
all grades, resided in the Whitefriars ; in Lewk- 
ner's Lane lived many profligate characters. 
Books were then, as noWj sold in Paternoster Row, 
and in Little Britain,— not far from it ; divinity 
and classic books, on the north side of St. Paul's 
Churchyard ; law, history, and plays, about Tern- 



24 

pie-bar; French books in the Strand. The cele- 
brated jester to Queen Elizabeth, Dick Tarleton, 
kept a tavern in the Row, which was much fre- 
quented by the wits of the day. 

Since these days, London has passed through 
many mutations ; it has more than quadrupled its 
size, and has not yet ' stopped growing.' The cen- 
tralizing tendency of the fashionable world is still 
westward — Belgrave Square and the vicinity of 
Hyde Park. Of the City proper we need not 
speak, it remains in statu quo ; as also does the 
veritable Cockney, who, ignored by his patrician 
neighbor, is wholly innocent of any participation 
in the busy movements beyond his own plebeian 
circle, while his dormant ideas and plodding f^t, 
possibly never pas& beyond the limits of Temple- 
bar. 

The vast labyrinth of London streets is enough 
to baffle the best topographer. Thousands who 
live at the one extremity, know nothing of those 
residing at the other — as if they were antipodes. 
l^o man does, or can know London in all its de- 
tails. What does the fashionable fop, at the West 
End, know of the plebeian of the city, or the 
degraded dwellers in the vicinity of AYapping, 
Seven Dials, or Eotherhithe — or the thousand 
obscure and densely crowded courts and alleys, 



25 

east of the India House? How many in St. 
John's Wood conld find their way on the other 
side of the Thames ? What memory would be 
found equal to the remembrance of all the names, 
affluents, bearings and geographical positions of 
its 20,000 streets ! It is the study of a life-time. 
Till within the last few years, London presented 
comparatively but slender claims to architectural 
elegance. Of its public buildings there were but 
few that exhibited any great taste, while the man- 
sions of the nobility, and the religious edifices of 
the city might also be classed under the same cate- 
gory. With the exception of St. Paul's, the Abbey 
at Westminster, and Somerset House, most of the 
splendid structures that now cluster so thickly its 
numerous streets, and adumbrate the vast opulence 
of this mighty emporium of commerce and wealth, 
have been erected during the last thirty years. 
Within forty years, four or five splendid new bridges 
have spanned the waters of the Thames. This has 
been owing to the long interval of peace, which has 
induced a more fostering care and cultivation of art 
and love of refinement. Although much was accom- 
plished in this regard, during the reigns of George 
TV. and his immediate successor, yet under the 
auspices of the reigning Monarch — the most univer- 
sally beloved of all England's sovereigns — London 



26 

may be said to have attained its Augustan age. 
Stupendous as its present extent is, conjecture is 
baffled in the attempt to estimate the vastness of 
its constantly increasing dimensions ; for it retains 
within itself all the elements which have hitherto 
contributed, under less favorable circumstances, to 
augment its greatness. 

Thus endeth our bird's eye view of the Great 
Metropolis ; a miniature sketch of which, as seen 
from a suburban eminence, here meets the eye of 
the reader. 




27 



CHAPTER II. 




Apsley House — The Iron Duke — Earl of Elgin's House — Bath 
House — Devonshire House— Pulteney Hotel — House of Mur- 
ray, the Publisher — Burlington House — The Albany. 



lOMMEN'CIKG our tour of the 
city at Hyde Park, one of the 
great hmgs which connect the ar- 
teries of this " mighty heart of 
England," we catch a glimpse of 
L^^ London to the best advantage. 
It is the largest of the parks of London, measuring 
three hundred and eighty-seven acres, and having 
seven beautiful gates. The manor of Hyde Park 
in early times belonged to the Abbey of West- 
minster ; at the period of the Reformation, how- 
ever, it became the property of the Crown. It is 
the place of rendezvous and fashionable prome- 
nade of the aristocracy. From three to five o'clock 
in the afternoon, throngs of splendid equipages 
blockade its various avenues, and on Sundays the 
display of fashion and luxurious splendor is to be 



28 

seen in its greatest extent. It is computed there 
are about 80,000 private carriages in London ; 
five thousand, it has been estimated, may often be 
seen in Hyde Park. The iiumber during the great 
Exhibition has increased beyond all the power of 
computation : the leading thoroughfares being in- 
cessantly blocked up with all sorts of vehicles. Till 
within a few years past, Hyde Park, Bayswater 
and Knightsbridge were considered suburban ; now 
imposing and stately edifices may be seen ranged 
in long lines of succession, making this vicinage 
the most fashionable and splendid portion of the 
' West End.' Luxury and splendor here vie with the 
old mansions of the aristocracy in the squares of 
Grosvenor, Bryanston, Hanover and Cavendish ; and 
for sumptuous magnificence they stand unrivalled. 
But the great crowning glory of Hyde Park — the 
Crystal Palace — has passed away. Its advent was 
a memorable one, however, and will not easily be 
forgotten. Although it no longer exists, it has left 
its impress on the page of history. 

The first notable building we meet with, as we 
leave the Park, is Apsley House, the mansion of 
the Duke of Wellington ; it is situated in Picca- 
dilly, at the south-east corner of Hyde Park, and 
connected with it by a triumphal arch of the 
Corinthian order. This edifice is worthy, in all 



29 

respects, of its illustrious occupant, — "the man 
whom the nation delighteth to honor." 




>t»v\t«* 



APSLEY HOUSE. 



Many works of art of high importance decorate 
this mansion in the various apartments, the prin- 
cipal of which is a magnificent saloon, occupying 
the entire western side. On the walls are huno* 
many of the finest pictures ; it is in this room the 
grand annual banquet is given by his Grace, on the 
anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, to the prin- 
cipal officers of the army serving on the occasion. 

In the inner hall stands the colossal statue of 
IS'apoleon, by Canova. The figure is nude, holding 
a winged Yictory in the right hand. On the en- 
trance of the allied armies into Paris, after the 



8 

battle of Waterloo, it became a trophy of war, and 
was presented by the congregated sovereigns of 
Europe to the illustrious hero in whose mansion 
it is now placed. 

There is also a bronze copy of the monument, 
by Rauch, dedicated to the veteran Bliicher. 

The collection of pictures is not extensive, but 
exceedingly choice ; several of them were present- 
ed to the duke by the king of Spain, after their 
recovery from the baggage of Joseph Bonaparte, 
captured at Yittoria. The greatest gem is consi- 
dered to be Christ's Agony in the Garden, by Cor- 
reggio. It is a small picture which has always 
borne the highest reputation, and was for a long 
time in the Royal Palace of Madrid. 

" The Iron Duke," as he is familiarly called, 
seems to belong to two ages — his name fills the 
story of the Peninsular war, and the battle of Wa- 
terloo, and he is still the political confidant of his 
Sovereign. He has, indeed, long enjoyed a living 
apotheosis of fame, and^ although verging towards 
ninety years of age, still retains the possession 
of his mental and physical powers. It is said that 
some years ago, an American lady in conversation 
with a friend, remarked as she was passing near 
Apsley House, that she had seen all the wonders 
of England, except one — the Duke of Wellington. 



31 

His Grace, wlio was passing at the moment, at- 
tended by his groom, accidentally overhearing the 
remark, turned towards the lady, and lifting his 
hat, said, " Madam, permit me to gratify yom' 
msh, by presenting the Duke before you." 

Facing Apsley House stands the Royal en- 
trance to Buckingham Palace. This triumphal 
archway is of marble, and surmounted by the 
colossal statue of the Duke of Wellington, which 
is undoubtedly the largest equestrian statue in 
the world. 

The house two doors east of the Duke of Wel- 
lington's was long the London residence of Beck- 
ford, the author of " Yathek." 

Passing down Piccadilly, may be seen many 
splendid houses of the nobility: the first we 
would mention, is that of the Earl of Elgin. Here 
were first exhibited the celebrated collection of 
marbles, now deposited in the British Museum, 
and which will ever bear his name. They were 
purchased by the British government in 1816, at 
the cost of £35,000, — a sufiicient proof of the cupi- 
dity of one party and the prodigality of the other. 
The aristocratic thoroughfare, now known as Park- 
lane, was formerly called Tyburn-lane, notorious 
as being the highway to the place of public execu- 
tions. Curzon-street, where the chapel now stands, 



3 2 

was, about the iniddle of the last century, the spot 
where May Fair was kept. 

The celebrated Bath House, whicl fronted on 
Piccadilly and which was standing until the year 
1821, contained upwards of fifty rooms, besides 
numerous servants' offices, etc. The ceiling of the 
library was richly carved with foliage and splendidly 
gilt, and the other apartments of this noble man- 
sion were of corresponding splendor. Sir William 
Pulteney was its sole occupant for years, and after- 
wards it was possessed by the Duke of Portland. 
In 1711, it was referred to in the "Spectator" as 
a country seat. Upon its site Lord Ashburton, 
formerly Mr. Baring, has erected a more modern 
structure. The Duke of Devonshire's town resi- 
dence is not far distant. At this splendid stone 
mansion are given those magnificent balls awdi fetes 
which excite the admiration of one half the fashion- 
able world, and the envy of the other. The Duke, 
by the tenure of his title, is unmarried, and is re- 
garded as the leader of the fashions. The residence 
of Lord Brougham stands adjacent. It is a large 
house on the west side of the Duke's. 

The character of Brougham has been admir- 
ably epitomized by Punch, in the following lines : 

The Statesman, — wlio, in a less happy hour 

Than this, maintained man's riglit to read and know, 



83 



And gave the keys of knowledge and of pcver 

With equal hand alike to high and low. 
The Lawyer, — who, unwarped by private aims. 

Denounced the Law's abuse, chicane, delay ; 
The Chancellor, — who settled centuries' claims, 

And swept an age's dense arrears away ; 
The man whose name men read e'en as they run 

On every landmark the world's course along, 
That speaks to us of a gi-eat battle won 

Over untruth, or prejudice, or wrong. 

From Ko. 80, Sir Francis Burdett was taken to 
the Tower, April 6th, 1810 ; the officer, armed with 
an arrest-warrant, scaling the house with a ladder, 
entering the window of the drawing-room, where 
Sir Francis was fonnd instructing his son in ''Magna 
Charta^ th« street being occupied by the Horse 
Guards. ]^o. 105, now Hertford House, was the 
old Pulteney Hotel ; here the Emperor of Russia 
put up during the memorable visit of the allied 
sovereigns in 1814 : and here the Duchess of 01 
denburgh (the Emperor Alexander's sister) intro 
duced Prince Leopold to the Princess Charlotte 
In the large brick house E"o. 1, Stratton-street, Mrs 
Coutts, afterwards Duchess of St. Albans, died 
Lord Eldon's house, at the corner of Hamilton-place 
was built by his grandfather. Lord Chancellor El don 
who died in it. On the south end of Albemarle 
street, once stood the princely edifice. Clarendon 

House, the residence of the Chancellor. It cost ori- 

2^ 



34 

ginally £50,000, it has since been pulled down. 
No. 50 Albermarle street, is the celebrated esta- 
blishment of John Murray, publisher to the Admiral- 
ty. Murray, the well known publisher of Bj-von's 
works, used to be familiarly styled, the ' Prince of 
Publishers ;' his drawing room has been honored 
by the presence of most of the great lights of mo- 
dern literature, — Scott, Jeffreys, Millman, Byron, 
Washington Irving, Lockhart, Prof. Wilson, Moore, 
etc. Murray was the only member of his craft, 
admitted to the tables of the aristocracy, and, if 
report be true, he fully appreciated the privilege. 
To the honor of Burlington House and the noble 
Earl, it will be recollected Pope, Gray, and Han- 
del were among its resident visitors. Queensberry 
House, in Burlington Gardens, was where the 
amiable poet Gray breathed his last in 1Y52. His 
body lay in state, and, at eight o'clock in the 
evening, was buried in Poets' Corner, Westminster 
Abbey, attended by Pope and several distinguish- 
ed noblemen. I^ear the west side of Burlington 
House, is Burlington Arcade. It is a covered 
avenue with glass roof, and with shops on either 
side tastefully decorated. On the eastern side of 
Burlington House, is a snug retreat denominated 
The Albany. It consists of a range of houses di- 
vided off into chambers, and principally occupied 



35 

by "gay young baclielors," members of Parlia- 
ment, artists, and authors. Sir Edward Bulwer 
Lytton occupied chambers there. Monk Lewis, 
George Canning, and Lord Byron resided here ; the 
house of the last named was ITo. 139. On the op- 
posite side of Piccadilly stands the Egyptian 
Hall. It is here Catlin's Indian Gallery has been 
exhibited. St. James's Church watches over the 
remains of — Dodsey, the bookseller ; Gillray, the 
caricaturist ; Cotton, the associate of Izaak Walton ; 
Dr. Arbuthnot, the friend of Pope ; Mark Aken- 
side, the poet ; and Sir John Malcolm. 

The reader may be curious to know the ori- 
gin of the name — Piccadilly. The earliest authori- 
ty on this subject bears date 1566, from which we 
learn the term " Pickadill " signified the hem of a 
garment, and it is supposed its application to this 
street was in consequence of its remoteness from 
the town. Mr. Jesse is of the opinion, however, 
that this article of dress was not introduced until 
nearly twenty years after Piccadilly had become a 
familiar name. He inclines to the supposition that 
the name took its rise from the Spanish word pecca- 
dillo — a venial fault ; and that the name was 
first given to a house of amusement located here, 
which was the favorite resort of the votaries oi 
fashion and folly of those days. 



3 6 



CHAPTER III. 

St. James's-street— Crockford'a, the Travellers', and other Club Houses The 

Clubs of Johnson's days — Drawing Room day at St. James's— Bridge- 
water House — Stafford House — Rogers's House — Johnson and Savage 

Pall Mall— Charles II.— Dodsley— St. James's Palace— Buckingham Pa- 
lace—Royal Proci'ssion to Parliament— St. James's Park — IHilton'a 
House— Peace Celebration— the Horse Guards, etc. 




EKE we approacli Saint 
James's-street, wliicli is 
celebrated all over Eii- 
^ rope for its splendid 
cliib-lioiises, and the 
old Palace that bears 
its name. These clubs, 
numbering above thir- 
ty -five, include some of 
the most splendid edi- 
fices of the metropolis. The Travellers' Club 
is the best known to ximericans ; members of 
our diplomatic corps being not unfrequently 
guests at its tables. The names of the most ce- 
lebrated are as follows : the Travellers', White's, 
Brookes's, the Thatched House, the Conserva- 
tive Club, the Oxford and Cambridge, the Carl- 



37 

ton, the United Service, the Reform Club, the 
Athenaeum, Arthur's, and the Army and ^avj 
Club. St. James's CotFee-House, St. James's-street, 
which was a Whig coffee-house of the time of 
Queen Anne, was frequented by Addison and 
Steele, and occasionally attended by Goldsmith 
and G-arrick. Here originated Goldsmith's "He- 
taliation." -;, 

White's, a Tory club-house, opposite Crock- 
ford's, was originally White's Chocolate-House, 
under which name it was established. As a Club 
it dates from 1736. It was then made a private 
house, for the convenience of the chief frequenters 
of the place, whose annual subscriptions towards 
its support were paid to the proprietor, by whom 
the Club was formed. The arms of the Club were 
designed by Horace Walpole and George Selwyn. 

The most noted of these clubs was Crock- 
ford's, the notorious gambling-house of the great 
Metropolis. This magnificent structure was long 
the wonder and boast of London. ('rockford's 
has been not inaptly styled Pandsemonium. 
Its interior decorations are splendid in the ex- 
treme. On entering from the street, a magnificent 
vestibule and staircase break upon the view. To the 
right and left of the hall are the reading and din- 
ing rooms. The staircases are of sinuous form, 



38 

sustained by four columns of the Doric order; 
above which are series of examples in the Ionic 
order, forming a quadrangle, with apertures to the 
chief apartments. Above the pillars is a covered 
ceiling, perforated with numerous panels of stained 
glass, from which springs a dome of surpassing 
beauty ; from the dome depends a lantern contain- 
ing a magnificerrt chandelier. 

Its state drawing-room was decorated in the 
gaudy style of the school of Louis Quatorze, 
its panels being richly ornamented by mirrors ; 
sumptuous chandeliers were suspended from a 
richly groined and gilded ceiling, and, taken 
as a whole, such was its consummate splendor, that 
it was long considered altogether unrivalled. 
There were other chambers scarcely inferior in 
beauty: yet this gorgeous palace was desecrated 
to the worst of purposes — that of gambling. We 
remember an instance of princely fortune having 
been squandered away in a single night — that 
of Lord Milton, who sacrificed at the dice-table 
£30,000 ! This notorious establishment possessed 
a private bank, and more diabolical wicked- 
ness was perpetrated within its walls than has 
ever been revealed, and yet enough has been ex- 
posed to render it an object of universal detesta- 
tion. 



39 

On Crjckford's death in 1844, the Club was 
closed, and it ceased to be occupied until May, 
1849, when it was taken possession of by the Mili- 
tary and Kaval County Service Club. The follow- 
ing impromptu was perpetrated by Sydney Smith, 
at a party at Holland House, upon a lady's re- 
marking, that the money which men lost at their 
clubs in gambling, would dress the ladies : 

" Thoughtless that ' all that's brightest fades,' 
Forgetting quite that knave of spades — 

The sexton, and his subs, — 
How foolishly we play our parts, 
Women on diamonds set their hearts. 

Men set their hearts on clubs," 

A new phase of English society has been pre- 
sented by the establishment of these numerous 
Clubs ; they differ essentially in their constitution 
from those of the age of Johnson. Some of the 
most influential and opulent of the British Peerage 
are attached to these institutions. As to architec- 
tural elegance, they exhibit some of the best spe- 
cimens extant. 

These establishments, which have of late years 
assumed a splendor unknown to the ideas of their 
originators, are the resorts of political, fashionable, 
and literary characters, for the purpose of conver- 
sation, reading; or refreshment. Persons desirous 
of admission must be proj)osed by members, and 



40 

balloted for. The subscriptions vary, according to 
the character of the club, from twenty to twenty- 
five guineas entrance, and from five to six guineas 
per annum. 

Until about thirty years ago a Club was seldom 
more than a mere knot of acquaintances who met 
together of an evening, at stated times, in a room 
engaged for that purpose at some tavern, and some 
of them held their meetings at considerable inter'- 
vals apart. Most of them were anything but 
fashionable— some of them upon a footing not at all 
higher than that of a club of mechanics. Among 
the regulations of the Essex-street Club, for instance, 
(instituted by Dr. Johnson shortly before his death, 
and limited to twenty-four members,) one w^as, 
that each person should spend not less than 
sixpence / another, that each absentee should for- 
feit threepence^ and each of the company was to 
contribute a penny as a douceur for the waiter! 
At that period the chief object of such associations 
was relaxation after the business of the day, and the 
enjoyment of a social evening in a homely way, 
in what would now be called a snug party. The 
celebrated " Literary Club," which was founded 
by Reynolds in 1763, and whose meetings were 
held once a week at the Turk's Head, in Gerard- 
street, Soho, now a very unfashionable locality, 



42 

consisted at first of only nine members, which 
number was, however, gradually increased to the 
large number oi thirty-five j yet, limited as it was, 
it would not be easy even now to bring together as 
large a number of equally distinguished characters. 
That club dined together once a fortnight, on which 
occa^ons " the feast of reason and the flow of 
soul " were, no doubt, enjoyed in perfection. In 
most clubs of that period, on the contrary, the 
flow of wine, or other liquor, was far more abun- 
dant than that of mind, and the conversation was 
generally more easy and hilarious than intellectual 
or refined. 

The Army and ]S"avy Club, corner of George- 
street, St. James's Square, was built 1847-50, from 
the designs of Parnell and Smith. The building 
cost in all £35,000, exclusive of fittings. The com- 
paratively small plot of land on which it stands 
has cost the Club £52,500, and the total expendi- 
ture may be called in round numbers £100,000. 
The largest apartment is the " Morning Room ;" 
and the " Library " is larger than the " Drawing 
Boom." The enrichments of the ceilings through- 
out are in cartonpierre and papier-mache. The 
principal furniture is of walnut-wood. The Kitch- 
en is one of the successful novelties of the build- 
ing, and will repay a visit. 



48 

Most 23art of the club-houses are i. Pail Mall 
and St. James's-street. The building erected for 
the Reform Club, by Mr. Barry, is one of the 
finest structures belonging to this class of edifices, 
and is fitted up with equal taste and magnificence. 

It was built in the year 1839 : the club consists 
of 1400 members ; the animal subscription being 
ten guineas, and the entrance fee twenty guineas. 
This club was founded by the liberal members of 
the two Houses of Parliament, about the time of 
the passing of the Eeform Bill, 1830-32. The in- 
terior of the edifice, especially the large hall co- 
vered with glass, in the centre of the building, is 
very imposing. 

The Carlton, the Conservative, the Athenaeum, 
and the United Service Clubs, are splendid speci- 
mens of architecture. 

On State occasions, when the Queen holds a 
" Drawing Eoom" at St. James's Palace, this street 
is fall of gaiety and splendor. From two o'clock 
till seven, the carriages of the nobility passing 
to and from the palace, completely blockade this 
thoroughfare and the adjacent streets. It is a 
splendid sight to witness the gaudy liveries with- 
out, and the magnificent tiaras of diamonds glitter- 
ing within, these superb equipages as they pass in 
procession. 



45 

St. James's Park was originally formed by 
Henry YIII., who caused to be drained and en- 
closed wbat at that time was little better than a 
marsh. It was afterwards much improved by 
Charles II., who employed Le Kotre to plant the 
avenues and form a canal, as also an aviary ad- 
joining, from which the Bird-cage "Walk took its 
name. This park is covered with beautiful flower- 
beds, lofty elms and dwarf shrubs, and green 
sward divided by gravelled walks ; while the lake, 
with its fountain and artificial islands (the latter 
designed for the accommodation, of the numerous 
water-fowl) render this deservedly one of the most 
popular promenades in the Metropolis. 

On the parade, in front of the Ilorse Guards, 
are placed a Turkish piece of ordnance captured 
at Alexandria by the British army, a piece of ord- 
nance captured at Waterloo, and one of the mor- 
tars used by the French army to throw shells into 
Cadiz ; its range being said to be three miles, and 
its weight sixteen tons. 

One of the regiments of the Foot Guards daily 
parades in this park, between ten and eleven o'clock 
in the morning, attended by the band. 

Bridgewater House, in St. James's Park, the 
town residence of the Earl of Ellesmere, is en- 
riched with a rare collection of pictures by tlie 



46 

Caracci and other great painters, and is justly 
celebrated. The Chandos portrait of Shakspeare 
also adorns the picture-gallery. This collection 
is valued at over £150,000, and by strenuous ex- 
ertions was completed in time to be opened 
gratuitously to the public simultaneously with the 
Great Exhibition. It is situated at the foot of the 
Green Park, and commands a beautiful view, on 
the north, of Piccadilly ; on the south, of St. 
James's Park, on the east, of Pall Mall ; and the 
Clubs ; and on the west, of Buckingham Palace 
and the Green Park, with the celebrated Welling- 
ton statue and Hyde Park Corner in the distance. 
It is perhaps the handsomest private building in 
London. 

Stafford House, the residence of the Duke 
of Sutherland, is also a most superb structure ; 
it cost £200,000 in erection. Its gallery is 
among the largest and most valuable of London. 
A grand staircase occupies a large part of the 
central mass of the building, and rises to the 
top, receiving light from a range of lantern win- 
dows, divided by colossal caryatides, which sup- 
port the ceiling. "Whatever wealth could obtain of 
skill and art to achieve me most magnificent coujp- 
d'ml in the metropolis, has been here lavished 
with consummate skill. The complete surface of the 




STAFFORD HOUSE. 



48 

iloor and staircase is covered with scarlet cloth ; the 
balustrades of the hand-railing are of a graceful, 
complicated pattern, richly gilt. On the first land- 
ing is placed the marble statue of a sibjl, by Ki- 
naldi. From this landing two flights of steps 
diverge upwards to a gallery, which passes round 
three sides of the hall, and is decorated w^ith marble 
columns and balustrades. Copies, by Lorenzi, of 
several of Paul Yeronese's colossal pictures, fill 
various compartments. From the base to the ceiling 
of this grand architectural feature, sculpture, carv- 
ing, gilding, and every ornament that could aid its 
magnificence, have been employed to complete it. 
In St. James's-street, Buckingham Gate, lived 
Glover, the author of " Leonidas," an epic ; also 
Pye, the poet-laureat, at 'No. 2 ; and at No. 6, 
Gifford, editor of the London Quarterly Peview, 
and author of the " Baviad and Mseviad." He died 
in 1846. Sir Walter Scott, referring to Giflford, in 
his Diary, says : — " He was a little man, dumpled 
up together, and so ill-made as to seem almost de- 
formed, but with a singular expression of talent in 
his countenance. He had one sin^-ular custom — he 
always used to have a duenna of a housekeeper to 
sit in his study with him while he wrote. This 
female companion died while I was in London, 
and his distress was extreme. I afterwards heard 



49 



he got lier place supplied, 
scandal in all this." 



I believe there was 



no 




The house 'No. 22 
was built on the site 
of one inhabited by 
the late Duke of St. 
Alban's, for Samuel 
Kogers, the author 
of " The Pleasures of 
Memory," etc. James 
Wyatt, E. A., was 
the architect, but 
much of its elegance 
Ijl' depended on its wor- 
thy owner. Here are 
treasured some of the 



f^ finest works of ancient 
and modern art. Flax- 



man designed the cor- 



nice and 
ney-pieces ; 



the chim- 
Stothard 



shines in vivid splendor in the decorations of a 
cabinet, designed by Mr. Eogers as a recep- 
tacle for his choice specimens of Italian art, 
among which are his matchless impressions of the 
Cartoons at Hampton Court : each print is produc- 
ed by blocks of seventeen colors, and also with one 



50 ■ 

block charged with silver, and another with gold. 
"If you enter his [Rogers's] house — his drawing- 
room, his library, — you of yourself say, this is not 
the dwelling of a common mind. There is not a 
gem, a coin, a book thrown aside on his chimney- 
piece, his sofa, his table, that does not bespeak an 
almost fastidions elegance in the possessor." 
Among his pictures are nine by Sir Joshua Rey- 
nolds, three of the more noticeable of which are, 
Little Puck, Cupid and Psyche, the Sleeping Girl, 
etc. Poetry and poverty are usually convertible 
terms, but here we have an exception to the rule, 
Hogers being at once a patron as well as a 
votary of the muse. Pie is reputed very wealthy. 
He has among his relics a cancelled million Bank of 
England note, framed and glazed, hanging upon his 
walls. But he is a banker as well as a poet. 

The late Sir Francis Burdett's house is No. 25, 
which is celebrated for its curiously constructed 
library, drawing-room, staircase, &c. Earl Spen- 
cer's next claims our notice ; the matchless literary 
treasures which his library contains, have been 
made the subject of learned and most pleasant 
record, by the renowned bibliopole. Dr. Dibdin. 
We forgot to note that the house IS'o. 76, St. 
James's-street is memorable as having been the 
place where Gibbon breathed his last. 



• 61 

In Jermyn-street, St. James's, lived the great 
Duke of Marlborough, in 1675-1681 ; the house 
was situated at the west end, south side, about 
five doors down. Sir Isaac IN'ewton lived in this 
street ; also Gray, the poet. At St. James's Market 
close by, in a room over the market-house, preach- 
ed Richard Baxtei, the E'onconformist. On the 
occasion of his first sermon, the main beam of the 
building cracked beneath the weight of the con- 
gregation. In Bury-street, St. James's, lived Dean 
Swift ; Thomas Moore also lodged at 'No. 33 in this 
street, in 1814 ; and Crabbe at No. 37. The St. 
James's Hotel, N"o. 76, on the south side, was the 
last London lodging of Sir Walter Scott. Here he 
lay for a period of three weeks after his return from 
the Continent, either in absolute stupor or a wak- 
ing dream. The apartment he occupied w^as the 
second fioor back room : the great novelist and 
poet was carried from the hotel to his carriage on 
the afternoon of the 7th July, 1832. Many were 
eager to see so great a man, but all mere cu- 
riosity seemed to cease when they saw the vacant 
eye and prostrate figure of the illustrious poet. 
There was not a covered head ; hardly a dry eye 
on the occasion.^ 

Turn Y7e now to an opposite picture. St. James's 
* Cunningham. 



62 

Square, near bj, witnessed a scene of sad destitu- 
tion and suffering, in the instance of Eicliard Sa- 
vage and Samuel Johnson, ere their names be- 
came eminent in English life. It was here these 
neglected sons of genius were accustomed to linger 
through the li^e-long night, without shelter and 
without food. Both highly gifted with mind, but 
not with money, the former fell a victim to his 
improvidence ; the latter struggled manfully with 
his difficulties, mastered them, and reared for him- 
self an imperishable fame. Almaclc's^ the well- 
known resort of the beauty, wealth, and fashion of 
Great Britain, is an object of interest to the heau 
m,onde ; it is situated in King-street. It is wor- 
thy of note that the once aristocratic St. James's- 
street was the first that was paved for foot-passen- 
gers in London, and also the first street in connec- 
tion with Pall Mall that was lighted with gas ; 
this occurred in 1809. St. James's Square 
abounds with splendid mansions occupied by the 
higher orders of the British peerage, and once 
by members of the royal family. It was here, 
at Norfolk House, that George III. was born. It 
was at Lord Ellenborough's house that the sale of 
the celebrated Roxburgh library took place in 
1812. Robert Bowyer, the distinguished collector 
of engravings illustratlTe of the history of England, 



5 8 

lived in Pall Mall, some dozen doors east of the 
Palace. Pall Mall derives its name from Paille- 
MaiRp. / the term given to an athletic game with 
ball and mallet, brought over from France in the 
17th century. In Pepjs' Diary, 1661, is the fol- 
lowing : " To St. James's Park, where I saw the 
Duke of York playing at Pelle Melle, the first 
time that ever I saw the sport." It was while 
walking in the Mall, that Charles II. one day 
gave Dryden the hint for writing his poem called 
the " Medal." "If I was a poet," said the King, 
" and I think I am poor enough to be one, I would 
write a poem on such a subject," and then gave 
him the plan for it. Dryden took the hint, carried 
the poem, as soon as it was finished, to the 
King, who presented him with a hundred " broad 
pieces " for it. In 1681, Sir William Temple resid- 
ed in Pall Mall, also the Hon. Eobert Boyle. The 
Duke of Schornberg's house, a large brick man- 
sion, is now occupied by Payne and Foss, the 
booksellers. Schomberg House was built in the 
reign of William III. The house was subsequently 
bestowed upon ITell Gwynne, by Charles II. ; it 
was from the back wall of this house, that she once 
held a light conversation with the King, which so 
horrified the decorous John Evelyn. From this 
locality also emanated that magnificent work. 



54 

BoydelPs " Illustrations of Shakspeare," and other 
Biiperb works, which cost nearly £300,000. The 
renowned book-auctioneer, Evans, also lived in 
Pall Mall, near the building formerly used for the 
National Gallery. Among his other celebrated 
book-sales was that of the vast library of Eichard 
Heber, the great collector, and brother to the 
Bishop, whose prodigious and rather chaotic mass 
of books w^ere finally distributed for sale in the 
several cities of London, Oxford, Paris, Ghent, 
and at his residence in Hodnet, in Shropshire. 
The sale at Evans's lasted a hundred days, and the 
catalogues made fifteen volumes. Dodsley, the 
bookseller, commenced life as a footman, but even 
in that servile situation, he discovered his supe- 
rior abilities in several productions of his pen, 
which were subsequently published, and among 
which w^as his well known-satire, " The Muse in 
Livery, or the Footman's Miscellany." It was 
Dodsley who first befriended Johnson, when he 
was utterly unknown and uncared for ; for he paid 
him ten guineas for his first production (1738) ; 
and about twenty years afterwards, he commenced 
the bold enterprise, under the auspicious pen of 
Burke, of his series of the Annual Register. The 
establishment of this worthy bibliopole was the 
favorite resort of Young, Akenside, Walpole, War- 



5 5 

ton, BiL.ke, Pope, and other learned men of his 
times. He was also publisher to Pope, Young, 
and Akenside. Dodsley ultimately acquired 
what is rare with his craft, a splendid fortune. 
The artist Gainsborough lived and died also in 
this same street. 

St. James's Palace, situated in Pall Mall, 
directly facing St. James's-street, was erected on 
the site of a hospital founded some time before the 
!N"orman Conquest. It was subsequently surren- 
dered to Henry YHL, who built a considerable 
portion of the Palace as it now stands. In this 
edifice the Sovereign holds the Levees and Draw- 
ing Pooms. The first are attended by gentlemen 
only, and usually take place on appointed Wednes- 
days during what is termed " the season " in Lon- 
don. The " Drawing Rooms " are destined for 
the Poyal reception of ladies as well as gentle- 
men, and are held on appointed Thursdays. The 
suite of apartments used for these purposes have 
windows looking into St. James's Park, and are of 
considerable dimensions. They may be said to be 
handsomely furnished, but fall very short of any 
regal magnificence worthy of the mighty kingdom 
of Great Britain. There were formerly some fine 
pictures by the great masters, and decorative fur- 
niture but they have been removed since Her 




ST. JAMES'S PALACE. 



57 

Majesty's accession, and they now contain only 
some good portraits with inferior ones and copies. 
On ascending the grand staircase, a grand cham- 
ber adorned with a number of military arms in 
fanciful devices, is on the left hand. 

Passing through a similar one, usually decorat- 
ed with arms, the first room of the state apart- 
ments is entered. This is called the Tapestry 
Room, as the walls are hung with that material ; 
the antique fire-place still retains the initials of 
Henry YIIl. and Anne Boleyn, interlaced with 
true-lovers' knots. The Ball Eoom succeeds, and 
is the first grand apartment facing the park. Two 
large pictures of the Siege of Tournay and the 
Siege of Lisle by the Duke of Marlborough, are 
hung in it ; there are likewise several full length 
portraits of Kings and Queens. The next in suc- 
cession of the suite of rooms is the Drawing 
Room ; then the Throne Room, at the western end 
of which is the Royal Chair of State, placed under 
a canopy emblazoned w^ith the Royal Arms. Im- 
mediately behind the Throne Room, is a smallei 
apartment oalleci the Council Chamber. The 
Chapel-Royal, at which Her Majesty attends when 
in town, has a choral service ; admission to it 
may be obt^in^d hj a small douceur to the attend- 
ants, 

3* 



58 

In the reign of Charles the First, Mary di 
Medici, in order to escape the intrigues of Riche- 
lieu, occupied apartments in St. James's Palace, 
during a period of three years, although she was 
no favorite with the English people, who finally 
petitioned Parliament for her removal to France. 
This was granted ; but her travelling expenses vot- 
ed to her by Parliament were £10,000. The ill- 
fated Charles spent the last three days of his 
melancholy life here. The " Pretender" was born 
at this Palace, which has also been the residence 
of the crowned heads, down to the accession of 
Queen Victoria, who prefers to occupy Bucking- 
ham Palace, which is far more spacious and splen- 
did. Still, however, the Drawing Rooms and 
Levees of the Court are held at St. James's. 

The suite of state apartments consist of 
ante-rooms, presence-chamber, drawing-rooms, 
Queen's closet, etc. In the presence-chamber, 
the Sovereign receives the homage of her sub- 
jects. In this room is the throne, surmounted 
with a crimson canopy of velvet beautifully 
embroidered with gold. In the dining-hall of 
St. James's Palace, we were once admitted to 
view the preparations for a royal banquet. The 
tables were covered with the superb servic(} of mas- 
sive gold plate of George lY., at that day un- 



59 

equalled for its costly magnificence. Some 3^ears 
afterwards we were curious to witness the cere- 
monial of the remains of the Duke of York lying 
in state. The apartments w^ere hung in black 
festoons, escutcheons were placed around the walls ; 
numerous candelabra of immense proportions were 
ranged each side of the coffin, which occupied the 
centre of the great hall. A splendid pall covered 
the remains, at the head of which w^as placed the 
ducal coronet So intense was the popular anxiety 
to witness the solemn spectacle, fhat several per- 
sons received injuries from the crowd, and one or 
two lost their lives, in the attempt to gain admis- 
sion. 

Passing from thence into St. James's Park, we 
catch a glimpse of Buckingham Palace, the royal 
metropolitan residence. The principal front forms 
a square, enclosing a space of about two hundred 
and fifty feet in diameter. There are twenty -three 
windows in each of the two upper stories ; the en- 
tresol is lighted by panels over the windows of 
the ground floor ; and the top story by openings in 
the freize of the entablature. The whole is crown- 
ed by a balustrade, the dies which form it into 
panels being each surmounted by an urn. The 
state apartments, staircases, etc., are on the grand- 
est scale : the floors are of inlaid wood, dispersed 



00 

in curious devices, nnd the door frames of richly 
sculptured marble ; wliilst the hangings, furniture, 
and ornaments are gorgeously resplendent. At- 
tached to the Palace are the Hoyal Gardens, which 
occupy about 40 acres, and are beautifully laid out 
and ornamented. All the appointments of this 
magnificent structure seem to have been construct- 
ed with the most prodigal disregard of expense ; 
we believe its entire cost amounted to between 
three and four millions sterling. When the Queen 
occupies the Palace, the royal standard is hoisted. 
It is somewhat remarkable that this royal resi- 
dence should be pitched in the immediate vicinity 
where Ben Jonson and some of his contempora- 
ries were accustomed to resort and indulge " pota- 
tions deep." The neighborhood of Pimlico, on the 
south side, is still one of very equivocal character, 
as well as the dirty narrow street that faces the 
western entrance of Westminster Abbey. Some 
twenty years ago there were in this neighborhood 
several old-fashioned, quaint public-houses of great 
antiquity, in existence. 

When Parliament is opened, or prorogued, or 
dissolved, by her Majesty in person, the following 
is the order observed : — The Queen leaves Bucking- 
ham Palace at a quarter before two o'clock, being 
conducted to her carriage by the Lord Chamberlain 



61 

and the Yice-Chamberlain, and her Crown carried 
to the House of Lords by one of the Lord Cham- 
Iain's chief officers. 

The State procession includes a carriage 
drawn by a set of bays, conveying three gentle- 
men ushers and the Exon in waitino^ ; a car- 
riage drawn by a set of bays, conveying the 
Groom in waiting, the Groom in waiting to Prince 
Albert, and two Pages of Honor in waiting ; a 
carriage drawn by a set of bays, conveying the 
Equerry in waiting, the Equerry in waiting to 
Prince Albert, and the Groom of the Robes ; a 
carriage drawn by a set of bays, conveying the 
Clerk Marshal, the Silver Stick in waiting, the 
Field Officer in waiting, and the Comptroller of 
the Household ; a carriage drawn by a set of bays, 
conveying the Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, 
the Lord in waiting, the Lord in waiting to Prince 
Albert, and the Treasurer of the Household ; a 
carriage drawn by a set of black horses, conveying 
the Lady in waiting, the Lord Steward, the Gold 
Stick in waiting, and the Groom of the Stole to 
the Prince. Here the carriage procession is 
broken by the Queen's Marshalmen, the Queen's 
Footmen in State, and a party of the Yeoman 
Guard. Then follows the State Coach drawn by 
eight cream-colored horses, conveying the Queen, 



62 

Prince Albert, the Mistress of the Eobcs, and the 
Master of the Horse. 

St. James's Park, first formed by Henry YIIL, 
was re-arranged and planted in the reign of Charles 
II., by the celebrated French architect, Le J^otre, 
who designed the gardens at Versailles. The 
Park was again re-modelled in the reign of George 
lY. It is very picturesque in its arrangements ; 
in the centre is an artificial lake, with islands ; lofty 
willows, with their impending branches, deck the 
margins of the water ; at the eastern extremity is a 
Swiss cottage, and at the western, facing Bucking- 
ham Palace, a beautiful fountain. 

St. James's Park is very picturesque from what- 
ever point it is surveyed ; its adjacent buildings, 
including the Palace, the Abbey, and the Houses 
of Parliament, add a charm unequalled by any 
other public promenade in London. 

John Evelyn makes frequent allusions in 
his " Sylva," to the majestic elms in St. James's 
Park, under whose shade himself and most 
of his illustrious contemporaries were accus- 
tomed to promenade. It was while Charles the 
Second was taking his accustomed daily walk in 
this park, that he first received intimation of the 
pretended Popish plot, which, supported by l^ie 
perjury of Thomas Titus Gates, was the means of 



6S 

bringing so many worthy men to the scaffold, and 
of exciting such a spirit of fanaticism in the nation. 
" On the 12th August, 16Y8," says Hume, '' one 
Kirby, a chemist, accosted the king, as he was 
walking in the parks, — ' Sir,' said he, ' keep within 
the company ; your enemies have designed upon 
your life, and you may be shot in this very walk.' " 
Being asked the reason of these strange speeches, 
he said that two men, called Grove and Pickering, 
had engaged to shoot the king, and Sir George 
Wakeman, the Queen's physician, to poison him. 
This intelligence, he added, had been communi- 
cated to him by Dr. Tougne, whom, if permitted 
he would introduce to his majesty. " The results 
of this conversation are but too well known, and 
form altogether, one of the most remarkable pas- 
sages of English history." Kear the handsome 
building recently erected, and known as Her 
Majesty's State Paper Office, may be seen part of 
the mansion once occupied by the execrable Judge 
Jeffries. It has since been known as Duke-street 
Chapel. 

Milton was born at the Spread Eagle^ Bread- 
street, Cheapside, December 9, 1608 ; and was 
buried, l^ovember, 1674, in St. Giles's Churcli, 
Cripplegate, without even a stone, in the first 
instance, to mark his resting-place; but, in 1793, 



04 

a bust and tablet were set up to liis memory by 
public subscription. Milton, before he resided 
in Jewin-gardens, Aldersgate, is believed to have 
removed to, and "kept school" in, a large house 
on the west side of Aldersgate-street, wherein met 
the City of London Literary and Scientific Institu- 
tion, previously to the rebuilding of their premises 
in 1839. Milton's London residences have all, 
with one exception, disappeared, and cannot be 
recognized ; this is in Petty France, at Westmin- 
ster, where the poet lived from 1651 to 1659. 
The lower part of the house is a chandler's shop ; 
the parlor, up stairs, looks into St. James's Park. 
Here part of " Paradise Lost " was w^ritten. The 
house belonged to Jeremy Bentham, wdio caused 
to be placed on its front a tablet, inscribed, 
"Sacred to Milton, Prince of Poets." Hazlitt 
also resided here. Tlie peace of 1814 was cele- 
brated in the parks with great splendor : the 
grand national festival took place on the first of 
August of that year; in Hyde Park there was a 
mimic naval fight on the Serpentine, and a fair 
which lasted several days ; in the Green Park was 
erected a splendid edifice called the "Temple of 
Concord ;" and in St. James's Park a building 
which outlasted all the rest. A Chinese bridge of 
wood was thrown over the canal, upon the centre 



65 

of whicli was constructed a lofty Pagoda. There 
were also various Chinese lanterns. These build- 
ings were decorated with fireworks, and at about 
midnight the Pagoda accidentally took fire, caus- 
ing the loss of some lives. All the principal streets 
of the metropolis on this occasion were magnifi- 
cently illuminated. A more enthusiastic national 
jubilee, perhaps, never elsewhere was witnessed. 

The Horse Guards, guarded by mounted sen- 
tries in full uniform, is the locale for the trans- 
actions of all affairs connected with the War 
Department. The Duke of Wellington is the 
present commander-in-chief. 



6Q 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Admiralty — Wliitehall— The Treasury— Downing-street — Westminster 
Abbey — Henry Vll.'s Chapel— Poets' Corner — Chapel of Edward 
the Confessor— Funeral of Cromwell — St. Margaret's — Old Palace Yard 
—Westminster Hall — its hist irical Associations — Courts of Law and 
Equity, and the Star Chamber, 



ARLIAMENT-STEEET and White. 

hall are full of notable buildings, 

and still more remarkable for their 

historical associations. We begin with 

the head-quarters of the Army and 

Navy. 

The Admiralty, built by Eipley, in the reign of 
Georore II., is on the site of a mansion called Wal- 
lingford House ; it is a heavy building receding 
from, but communicating ^vith, the street by 
advancing wings ; the portico of the main build- 
ing is a tasteless specimen of the Ionic order. The 
court is enclosed by a stone screen, decorated with 
naval emblems. It is here the higher departments 
of the business of the navy are transacted. The 
Lords of the Admiralty have apartments here. 




67 

Opposite the Horse Guards stands Whitehall 
Chapel, from one of the windows of which the un- 
fortunate monarch Charles I. suffered decapita- 
tion. Could the walls of this ancient edifice tell 
the story of the doings and sayings they have wit- 
nessed, the chronicle would go a great way to fill 
up the mediaeval history of England. From the 
time of the Tudors to that of the Stuarts, the names 
of most of the illustrious personages who have in- 
fluenced the destinies of the Empire are associated 
with the records of this place. 

It was the Palace of the Kings of England 
from the reign of Henry YHI. to William IH. It 
was originally called York House, having been a 
residence of Cardinal "Wolsey, and so named by 
him ; it received its present designation on its 
transfer to the Crown. Whitehall formerly occu- 
pied an area of great extent, fronting the Thames 
on the east, St. James's Park on the west, and 
stretching from Scotland Yard on the north to 
Canon-row, Westminster, on the south. There was 
a public thoroughfare through the Palace, but the 
number of funerals which passed to St. Margaret's, 
Westminster, offending Henry YIII., he had a 
cemetery formed at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 

The great event which distinguished Whitehall 
is so well known, that it seems unnecessary to do 



68 

more than merely refer to it. However, those who 
not need to be informed, may be reminded that 
here Charles I. was executed on the 30th January, 
1649. The reader who has gathered his knowledge 
of that event from Hume — so long the most popu- 
lar of English historians — might imagine that the 
unfortunate King passed his last days in White- 
hall, and was merely brought from the interior to 
the outside of that edifice to suffer. Such is not 
the fact ; the King spent the last three days of his 
life in St. James's Palace ; and was brought from 
thence through the Park to Whitehall on the fatal 
morning, some hours before that fixed for the exe- 
cution. He remained in his bed-chamber engaged in 
acts of devotion till the final hour arrived, when he 
was led along the galleries to the banquetting-honse, 
through the wall of which a passage was broken to 
the scaffold. A man in a closed visor stood ready 
to perform the office of executionei*. After the 
short and feeling address to the few persons who 
could hear him, and his aftecting colloquy with 
good Bishop Juxon, to whom he replied, "I go 
from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown, 
where no disturbar ce can have place," the king 
laid his head upon the block, and the man in the 
visor struck it from his body at one blow. Another 
man in a similar disguise held it np immediately, 



.69 

all dripping with blood, and exclaimed, " This is 
the head of a traitor !" 

Whitehall was formerly a residence of Cardinal 
Wolsey, but was surrendered to the Crown when 
that proud prelate lost the favor of his sovereign. 

Inigo Jones, the architect to James I., project- 
ed a new palace on a magnificent scale upon the 
site of the present building. Had the scheme been 
carried out it would have been the most vast and 
symmetrical design ever devised. The present 
building, which is sometimes called the Banquetting 
House, presents the earliest specimen of pure Italian 
architecture in England. Charles I. contemplated 
carrying out the proposed plan of his predecessor, 
but only completed the decoration of the ceiling 
by Bubens, which cost £3,000. This Banquetting- 
room was converted into a chapel by George I, 
The whole pile was Ihe residence of James H., but 
in 1698 a destructive fire consumed all but that 
portion which now remains. Here some of the 
regiments stationed in London formerly attended 
Divine Service. The Treasury, which extends on 
the opposite side of Whitehall, consists of a long 
line of splendid stone buildings of the Tuscan and 
Ionic orders. Here are the several government 
offices connected with the Treasury department ; 
and here is deposited the talisman that keeps to- 



70 

getber the social fabric of the Empire. Downing- 
street contains the offices of the Privy Council, 
the Board of Trade, and the official residence of the 
Prime Minister. From this obscure street issue 
forth edicts and measures which sometimes shake 
the world. Downing-street, in a word, bears the 
same relation to the politics of the British Empire, 
as Lombard-street and the Bank of England do to 
its monetary affairs. 

Passing down Parliament-street we approach 
that venerable pile — Westminster Abbey. This 
magnificent structure, although inferior in archi- 
tectural splendor and symmetrical proportions to 
many other celebrated Cathedrals, is yet an im- 
posing and august edifice. It is dingy — almost 
black, like most other buildings of London — from 
the prevailing smoky atmosphere of the city ; yet 
this very blackness adds to ifs picturesque effect. 
Yiewed longitudinally it appears vast in extent 
and height. 

It was founded in the sixth century, and is said 
to be on the ruins of a temple of Apollo, and was 
restored by Edgar in 969, and re-erected by 
Edward the Confessor in 1065. He devoted one- 
tenth of his property to its erection : subsequent 
monarchs still further enriched the stately edifice, 
and Henry YU. added, at the eastern extremity, 



71 

the gorgeous chapel bearing his name. For elabo- 
rate richness of ornament, this beautiful chapel 
surpasses any specimen of the florid Gothic in the 
world. 




HENRY VII. S CHAPEL. 



The entire length of Westminster Abbey 
measures five hundred and thirty feet, length of 
transept two hundred and fourteen feet, and the 
height nearly one hundred and fifty feet. This 
vast mausoleum — the final resting-place of sove- 
reigns, statesmen, poets, warriors and divines — pre- 
sents an object of the most intense interest. The 
eastern end of the Abbey is surrounded by up' 



7 2 

wards of a dozen chapelries, including Henry the 
Seventh's Chapel. Yiewed fiom the western or 
grand entrance, the scene presented is one of most 
imposing grandeur. The prodigious altitude of the 
groined roof, the magnitude of the arches, and the 
serial loftiness of the vaulted aisles, all tend to im- 
press the beholder with a feeling of religious awe 
and amazement. The numerous mural monuments 
and tombs so thickly clustered about the sacred 
enclosure, invest this renowned temple with rare 
attractions and interest. 

Henry YII.'s Chapel is entered by a flight 
of twelve steps beneath the Oratory of Henry Y. 

In the centre of Henry the Seventh's chapel are 
the magnificently decorated shrines of the rival 
queens, Mary and Elizabeth, whose remains now 
repose peacefully side by side. As one gazes upon 
these mementoes of the departed, the heart is mov- 
ed with sympathy for the hapless fate of the lovely 
and unfortunate victim of the fierce envy and am- 
bition of her tyrannical oppressor. The stalls 
of this magnificent chapel are richly carved in 
oak; over which hang the ancient banners of the 
Knights of the Bath, apparently ready to crumble 
to pieces from age. The gorgeous fret-work of the 
roof, so richly carved, bafiles description ; the 
whole must be seen to be duly appreciated. 



73 

The entrance gates are of oak, overlaid witli brass 
gilt, and wrought into various devices — the port- 
cullis exhibiting the descent of the founder from 
the Beaufort family, and the crown and twisted 
roses the union that took place, on Henry's mar- 
riage, of the White Rose of York with the Red 
Rose of Lancaster. The Chapel consists of a cen- 
tral aisle, with five small chapels at the east end, 
and two side aisles, north and south ; the banners 
and stalls appertain to the Knights of the Most 
Honorable Military Order of the Bath, an order 
of merit next in rank in this country to the Most 
IS'oble Order of the Garter ; the Knights w^ere 
formerly installed in this Chapel ; and the Dean 
of Westminster is Dean of the Order. The prin- 
cipal monuments in Henry YII.'s Chapel are, — 
Altar-tomb with effigies of Henry YH. and Queen 
(in the centre of the chapel), the work of Peter 
Torrigiano, an Italian sculptor : — Lord Bacon calls 
it " one of the stateliest and daintiest tombs in 
Europe : " the heads of the King and Queen were 
originally surmounted with crowns ; the perpen- 
dicular enclosure or screen is of brass, and the 
work of an English artist. In the south aisles Al- 
tar-tomb, with effigy (by Torrigiano) of Margaret, 
Countess of Richard, mother of Henry YH., 
Altar-tomb with ^^gy of the mother of Lord 



74 



Darnlej, husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. 
Tomb, with effigy (by Cornelius Cure) of Mary, 
Queen of Scots, erected by James I., who brought 
his mother's body from Petersborough Cathedral, 
and buried it here. Monument to George Yilliers, 
Duke of Buckingham, and his Duchess ; the 
Duke was assassinated by Felton, in 1628 ; his 
youngest son, Francis, wdio was killed in the Civil 
Wars, and his eldest son, the second and profli- 
gate duke, are buried with their father in the vault 
beneath. Statue of the first wife of Sir Robert 

Walpole, erected 
by her son, Ho- 
race Walpole, the 
great letter - wri- 
ter. In the north 
aisle — the Tomb, 
with an effigy 
(by Maximilian 
Coult,) of Queen 
Elizabeth ; her 
sister, Mary, is 
buried in the 
same grave King 
James I. and 
Anne of Den- 




75 

mark, Henry Prince of Wales, the Queen of Bo- 
hemia, and Arabella Stuart are also buried here. 
Monument to George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, 
who restored Charles 11.^ Sarcophagus of white 
marble, containing certain bones accidentally dis- 
covered (July, 1674,) in a modern chest below 
the stairs which formerly led to the Chapel of 
the White Tower, and believed to be the re- 
mains of Edward Y., and his brother Eichard 
Duke of York, murdered by order of their uncle. 
King Richard III. Monuments to Saville, Marquis 
of Halifax, the statesman and wit ; to Montague, 
Earl of Halifax, the universal patron of the men 
of genius of his time. 

The " Poets' Corner " is profusely studded with 
these shrines of genius ; here may be seen mo- 
numents to the memories of Shakspeare, Spenser, 
Ben Jonson, Chaucer, Milton, Cowper, Gay, 
Blair, Goldsmith, Dryden, Addison, and hosts 
of other illustrious names that have adorned the 
brightest pages of English history. 

In the vicinity may also be seen the tombs of 
Major Andre, Chatham, Halifax, Mansfield, Grat- 
tan. Canning, Pitt, Fox, Sheridan, Wilber- 
force, Howe, Warren, Wolfe, Eyre, and Sir Clouds- 
ley Shovel ; also Handel, Busby, Kemble, Kneller, 
* Cunningham. 



Camden, Barrow, and others too numerous to be 
recited here. 

The monument or entablature to the memory 
of Major Andre, erected at tlie expense of George 
III., lias a fio^ure of Washino^ton on the bas-relief. 
"This head," says Charles Lamb, "has on three 
different occasions been renewed ; in consequence 
of the wanton mischief of some schoolbo}^, fired 
perhaps with raw notions of transatlantic freedom. 
The mischief was done," he adds, addressing 
Southey, " about the time you were a scholar 
there : do you know anything about the unfortu- 
nate relic ? " This sly allusion to the early political 
sentiments of the great poet, caused a temporary 
cessation of friendship. with the essayist. 

Another Chapel (the most interesting of all), 
occupying the space at the back of the high altar 
of the Abbey, is the " Chapel of St. Edward the 
Confessor," or the " Chapel of the Kings," entered 
from the ambulatory by a temporary staircase. 
The centre of this chapel is taken up by the shrine 
of King Edward the Confessor, erected in the reign 
of Edward III., and richly inlaid with mosaic 
work: of the original Latin inscription, only a few 
letters remain. Henry IV. was seized with his last 
illness while performing his devotions at this 
shrine There is the Altar-tomb, with bronze efiigy, 




POET'S CORNEK, WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 



78 

of Henry III., and Altar-tomb of Edward I., com- 
posed of five large slabs of marble. When this 
tomb was oj^ened in 1774, the body of the king 
was discovered almost entire, with a crown of tin 
gilt upon his head, a sceptre of copper gilt in his 
right hand, and a sceptre and dove of the same 
materials in his left ; and in this state he is still 
lying. Here are also the Altar-tombs of Eleanor, 
Queen of Edward I. ; Edward III., and Philippa, 
his Queen ; of Richard II. and his Queen. Altar- 
tomb and chantry of Henry Y., the hero of Agin- 
court: the head of the king was of solid silver, and 
the figure was plated with the same metal ; the 
head was stolen at the Keformation ; the helmet, 
shield and saddle of the king are still to be 
seen on a bar above the turrets of the chantry. 
A gray slab, formerly adorned with a rich brass 
figure, covering the remains of Thomas of 
"Woodstock ; also the Altar - tomb of Elizabeth 
Tudor, daughter of Henry YIL The two coro- 
nation chairs, still used at the coronation of the 
Sovereigns of Great Britain, one containing the 
famous stone of Scone, on which the Scottish 
kings were wont to be crowned, and which Ed- 
ward I. carried away with him, as an evidence of 
his absolute conquest of Scotland : this stone is 
twenty-six inches long, sixteen inches wide, and 



79 

eleven inches thick, and is fixed in the bottom of 
the chair by cramps of iron ; it is nothing more 
than a piece of reddish-gray sandstone squared and 
smoothed ; the more modern chair was made for 
the coronation of Mary, Queen of William III. 

The funeral obsequies of Oliver Cromwell were 
conducted with great pomp and splendor, in West- 
minster Abbey, if we are to credit the chronicles 
of the time : " The walls were hung with two hun- 
dred and forty ■ escutcheons ; the splendid sorrows 
that did adorn the hearse were twenty-six large 
embossed shields, and twenty-four smaller, with 
crowns ; sixty badges, with his crest ; thirty-six 
scrolls, with mottoes ; his efiigy carved and su- 
perbly arrayed ; a velvet pall, which contained 
eighty yards," etc. And to show the barbarous 
excesses to which party feeling carried men, not 
long after, the royalists rifled his grave, with rapid, 
demoniacal desecration. Even Evelyn, in his 
Diary, refers to the latter event, in the following 
fanatical spirit: — "This day (Jan. 30.) were the 
carcasses of those arch-rebels, Cromwell, Bradshaw 
(the judge who condemned his Majesty), and Ire- 
ton, son-in-law to the Usurper, dragged out of their 
superb tombs in Westminster Abbey among the 
kings, to Tyburn, and hanged on the gallows there 
from nine in the morning to six at night, and then 



80 

buried iinder that fatal and ignominious monument 
in a deep pit : thousands who had seen them in 
all their pride being the sj^ectators. Look back 
to Nov. 22d, 1658, Cromwell's funeral, and be 
astonished, and fear God, and honor the King, and 
meddle not with them that are given to change." 

Many an enchanted hour have we lingered with- 
in those cloistered aisles, listening with rapt and 
thrilling emotion to the solemn, swelling peals of 
the organ, as they reverberated among the lofty 
arches. Like all such edifices, "Westminster Ab- 
bey is to be viewed to the greatest advantage by 
moonlight, or at twilight; it is then its moul- 
dering, reverent, and dark walls, look most im- 
posing and grand. During winter, w^hen the after- 
noon service is performed in twilight, and the 
central enclosure devoted to the purpose is lighted 
by long wax tapers, the choristers, deacons and 
prebends, dressed in white robes, present a strik- 
ing contrast with the deep shadows of the dim and 
lofty arches, while faint rays struggle through 

" Those storied windows richly dight, 
Shedding a dim religious light." 

It is then also that the grotesque effigies and 
sculptured busts there present a most startling 
effect, as seen dimly standing out from the walls. 
In a word, and that a borrowed one — we may sura 



8i 

up all by saying, that in visiting this magnificent 
pile, the eye is astonished by the " pomp of its 
architecture and the elaborate beauty of its sculp- 
tured detail." 

It will be recollected that the coronation of the 
Sovereigns of England takes place within the Ab- 
bey, on w^hich occasion it is splendidly decorated. 

Not far from the Abbey stood the Sanctuary, 
the place of refuge absurdly granted in former 
times to criminals of certain denominations. The 
church belonging to it was in the form of a cross. 
It is supposed to have been the work of the Con- 
fessor. Within its precincts was born Edw^ard Y. ; 
and here his unhappy mother took refuge with her 
younger son Richard, to secure him from his cruel 
uncle, who had already possession of the elder 
brother. 

West of the Sanctuary stood the Eleemosy- 
nary, or Almonry, where the alms of the Abbey 
were distributed. But it is still more remarkable 
for having been the place where the first printing- 
press ever known in England was erected. It w^as 
in 1474, that William Caxton produced "The 
Game and Play of the Chesse." 

The church of St. Margaret's is an ur4mportant 
building, standing under the shadow of the Ab- 
bey ; but has yet its interest, if only for contain- 
4* 



82 

ing the ashes of Sir Walter Raleigh, and of the 
early poet Skelton, so feared for his satires in the 
reign of Henry YIII. The church, at first a 
chapel, was founded by Edward the Confessor, 
and rebuilt by Edward I. and Edward lY. The 
House of Commons assemble here previous to the 
opening of Parliament. 

• In St. Margaret's, Westminster, are also buried 
Caxton ; the second wife of John Milton ; and 
the mother of Oliver Cromwell. 

Passing from the church of St. Margaret, we 
cross over to Old Palace Yard, where stands West- 
minster Hall, one of the most spacious Gothic 
structures in the world, which also formed part of a 
London Palace in the time of Edward the Confessor. 
Subsequent monarchs made their additions to this 
famous palace, but all that remains is the present 
magnificent hall, with its cloisters, which commu- 
nicate with the chapel of St. Stephen's, the name 
still occasionally given to the House of Commons. 
Westminster Hall is full of chronicles of the 
olden times. When Peter the Great was taken 
into Westminster Hall, he inquired who those 
busy people were in wigs and black gowns. 
He was answered they were lawyers. " Lawyers !" 
said he, with a face of astonishment ; " why, I 
have but two in my whole dominions, and I 



83 

believe I sliall hans^ one of tliem the moment I 
get home." 

In the Hall were formerly suspended the ban- 
ners taken from Charles I. at the battle of jSTaseby ; 
from Charles II. at the battles of Worcester, 
Preston, and Dunbar ; and, somewhat later, those 
taken at the battle of Blenheim. Here, at the 
upper end of the Hall, Oliver Cromwell was in- 
augurated as Lord Protector, sitting in a robe of 
pm-ple velvet lined with ermine, on a rich cloth of 
state, with the gold sceptre in one hand, the Bible 
richlj gilt and bossed in the other, and his sword 
at his side ; and here, four years later, at the top 
of the Hall fronting Palace Yard, his head was 
set on a pole, with the skull of Ireton on one 
side of it and that of Bradshaw on the other. 
Here shameless ruffians sought employment as 
hired witnesses, and walked openly in the Hall 
with a straw in the shoe to denote their quality ; 
and here the good, the great, the brave, the wise, 
and the abandoned have been brought to trial. 
Here (in the Hall of Rufus) Sir "William Wallace 
was tried and condemned ; here, in this very Hall, 
Sir Thomas More and the Protector Somerset were 
doomed to the scaffold. Here the notorious Earl 
and Countess of Somerset were tried in the reign 
of James I. foi* the murder of Sir Thomas Over- 



84 

bury. Here the great Earl of Stafford was con- 
demned, the King being present, and the Com- 
mons sitting bareheaded all the time. Here the 
High Court of Justice sat which condemned King 
Charles I., the upper part of the Hall hung with 
scarlet cloth, and the King sitting covered, with 
the Kaseby banners over his head ; here Lilly, the 
astrologer, who was present, saw the silver top 
fall from the King's staff, and others heard Lady 
Fairfax exclaim, when her husband's name was 
called over, " He has more wit than to be here." 
Here, in the reign of James IL, the Seven Bishops 
were acquitted. Here Dr. Sacheverel was tried 
and pronounced guilty by a majority of 17. Here 
the rebel Lords of 1745, Kilmarnock, Balmerino, 
and Lovat, were heard and condemned. Here 
Lord Byron w^as tried for killing Mr. Chaworth. 
Here AYarren Hastings was tried, and Burke and 
Sheridan grew eloquent and impassioned, while 
senators by birth and election, and the beauty and 
rank of Great Britain, sat earnest listeners and 
spectators of the extraordinary scene. The last pub- 
lic trial in the Hall itself was Lord Melville's, in 
1806 ; and the last coronation dinner in the Plall 
was that of George lY., when, for the last time 
possibly, according to the custom maintained for 
ages, the King's champion (Dymocke) rode on 



85 

horseback into the Hall, in full armor, and threw 
down the gauntlet on the floor, challenging the 
world in the King's behalf. This noble Hall is 239 
feet long by 68 feet broad. It is said to be the 
largest apartment not supported by pillars in the 
world, except one— the Hall of Reason, at Padua. 

It was originally built in the reign of William 
Eufus ; but the Hall, as it now exists, was erected 
1367-99. Parliaments were held in this Hall ; 
and it is a remarkable fact, that the first meeting 
of Parliament in the new edifice was for deposing 
the very King by whom it had been built. All 
the exterior now visible is of comparatively modern 
date, but its interior, wnth its splendid roof, pre- 
sents the most imposing specimen extant of mediae- 
val Gothic architecture. 

Mr. Weale regards it as holding a similar place 
among mediaeval structures which the Colosseum 
did towards those of antiquit}^ — bearing the same 
relation to the Greek temples which that amphi- 
theatre did to the Grecian ones. 

The open square in front of the Hall is 
classic ground : in the days of King Charles the 
Second, here stood a handsome conduit or foun- 
tain , and near the steps leading to Westminster 
bridge was the " clock-tower," supposed to have 
been the prison of Eichard Lovelace, the poet, who 



86 

was confined by the Parliament of Cromwell, for 
presenting a petition from the county of Kent, 
praying for the restitution of the King to his rights. 
While in captivity he wrote his beautiful song to 
"Althea from Prison." This open space was also 
the scene of the infliction of the pillory ; it was, 
however, the site of more severe punishments, and 
is* especially rendered memorable as the place of 
execution of Sir Walter Raleigh. He suifered the 
29th of October, 1618, in pursuance of a sentence 
passed, it will bo recollected, fifteen years pre- 
viously. 

He was brought to Palace Yard at nine in the 
morning, as we learn from the " State Trials," and 
manifested during his last moments an earnest 
striving to die without exhibiting a sign of fear. 
He had sufi'ered for some days of a fever, and lest 
the weakness of his body should be considered a 
weakness of mind, he stopped immediately he ar- 
rived on the scaffold, and addressed the persons 
about him, saying : — " I desire you will bear with 
me withal, and if I show any weakness, I beseech 
you to attribute it to my malady, for this is the 
hour in which it is wont to come." He then sat 
down, paused awhile, and directing his eyes to- 
wards a window where Lords Arundel, IS'orthamp- 
tou, Doncaster and some gentlemen were sitting, 



S7 

he said, as if addressing them, that he thanked 
God that he had been brought out to die in the 
daylight and not in the darkness, meaning proba- 
'bly that he rejoiced he was not put secretly to death 
in the Tower. Perceiving that the lords did not 
hear what he said, as they were at some distance 
from the scaffold, he raised his voice, but Lord 
Arundel entreated him not to do so, as they would 
come to the scaffold beside him, and hear what he 
had to say. Space was made for them accordingly, 
and Sir Walter, in a firm voice, made a long 
speech in defence and explanation of his conduct. 
He then prepared himself for death, giving away 
his hat, his cap, and some money to such persons 
about him as he knew, that they should preserve 
them as memorials of him after he was gone. Tak- 
ing leave of Lord Arundel, he requested him — so 
strong even in that hour was his desire to stand 
well in the estimation of his contemporaries and of 
posterity — to desire the king that no scandalous 
writings to defame him should be published after 
his death. He then said : " I have a long journey 
to go, and must therefore bid you farewell." Tak- 
ing off his doublet and gown, he desired the exe- 
cutioner to show him the axe. The latter appeared 
to hesitate a little, upon which Raleigh said, " I 
prithee, let me see it ! Dost thou think I am 



88 

afraid? " The man then gave it to him, and the 
victim felt carefully along the edge, and said to 
the sheriff, smiling, " This is a sharp medicine, 
and will cure all my diseases." He then walked 
to the several sides of the scaffold, and entreated 
the people to pray that God would give him 
strength. The executioner kneeling down to en- 
treat his forgiveness. Sir Walter laid his hand npon 
his shoulder, and said he freely forgave him. 
Being asked which way he would lay his head upon 
the block, he answered, " So the heart be straight, 
it is no matter which way the head lieth." 
He then laid his head upon the block, his face 
being turned towards the east; and the executioner, 
throwing down his cloak lest he should spoil Sir 
Walter's embroidered gown, struck off his head at 
two blows, the body never shrinking or moving. 
The head was, according to the customary practice, 
shown at both sides of the scaffold, and put into a 
red leather bag. His wrought velvet gown was 
thrown over it, and it was carried away in a 
mourning-coach to his disconsolate widow — to her 
to whom he addressed such affecting letters from 
the Tower — and placed, with his body, in St. Mar- 
garet's. 

Westn^inster Hall, for many ages the principal 
seat of the courts of law, was originally used by 



89 

William Kufns as the banquetting hall of his ad- 
joining palace. His subjects were sorely taxed for 
this^and other expenses. He often kept his Christ- 
mas here in great state, according to the fashion 
of the Korman Princes. St. Stephen's Chapel was 
founded in 1150 ; which, in the reign of Edward 
YI., was first used as the hall of British legislature. 
From this time the ancit/it palace of Westminster 
passed from being a royal residence to the double 
purpose of a seat of legislature and of judicature. 

The old Houses of Parliament were destroyed 
by fire in 1834. We well remember the magnificent 
appearance which Westminster Abbey presented 
illuminated by the blazing pile. The interior of 
Westminster Hall was, until the middle of the last 
century, or later, filled with shops and stalls, prin- 
cipally of booksellers. 

The several Courts of Law and Equity are with- 
in the precints of Westminster Hall. They include 
the Court of Exchequer, the Court of Common 
Pleas, and the Court of Queen's Bench. This 
latter took its name from the early custom (in 
vogue with the Saxons and Normans) of the sove- 
reign presiding in person to adjudicate causes. 

The Star-Chamber formed a part of the mass of 
buildings included in Westminster Hall and the 
House of Legislature. " The name of this court of 



9 

justice," says Pennant, " so tremendous in the 
Tudor and part of the Stuart reign, was not taken 
from the stars with which its roof is said to have 
been painted (which were obliterated even before 
the reign of Queen Elizabeth), but from the Starra 
or Jewish covenants, which were deposited there 
by order of Richard I., in chests under three lochs. 
No Starr was allowed to be valid except found in 
those repositories, where they remained till the 
banishment of the Jews by Edward I. In the 
reigns of Henry YII. and Henry YIH. a new mo- 
delled court was erected here, consisting of divers 
lords, spiritual and temporal, with two judges of 
the courts of Common Law, without the interven- 
tion of a jury. The powers of this court were so 
abused, that it was abolished altogether by the 
House of Commons in the sixteenth ycm* of the 
reign of Charles I. 



91 



CHAPTER V. 

The new Houses of Parliament— Interior View— Vauxhall— Lambeth Palace 
— Lollards' Tower — Westminster Bridge— Kin g-street-Sir Robert Peel's 
House— Charing Cross— Equestrian Statue of Charles L— Statue of 
George III,— Scotland Yard— British Institution— The National Gallery 
— Northumberland House — Craven-street — Norfolfe-street — Denham 
House— The Adelphi— Salisbury-street— The Savoy— Waterloo Bridge 
— Burleigh House. 



IHE NEW Palace of Westminster 
next claims our attention. This im- 
mense and splendid pile of Gothic 
buildings presents one of the most 
triumphant examples of modern art. The 
style of architecture is that of Henry the 
Eighth, from the design of Barry. From 
whatever position this sumptuous edifice is 
viewed, it presents a most imposing spectacle. 
The eye is dazzled with the profusion of its 
gorgeous decorations, and baffled in the attempt 
of measuring its vast dimensions. It presents the 
grandest aspect as seen from the river Thames. 
Its numerous pinnacles, and its rich Gothic fret- 
work, admirably comport with its several elegant 
and lofty turrets and towers. A palace of such ex- 
tent as eight acres is naturally expected to afford, 
and upon the construction of which such vast sums 




92 

have been expended, may well be expected to be- 
come tbe boast of the British Empire. Some idea 
of the magnitude of this national edifice may be 
formed when it is stated that the Palace to the 
eastward presents a frontage of nearly one thousand 
feet. The two legislative chambers — those of the 
Lords and Commons — are placed in the centre of 
the building, its other portions being occupied as 
porches, committee rooms, etc. The general public 
entrance is through Westminster Hall, up a flight 
of steps at its south end, into a square vaulted ves- 
tibule called St. Stephen's Porch, thence into the 
octagonal hall to the centre of the edifice. In this 
vicinity are long corridors and. lobbies that connect 
the House of Peers with the House of Commons. 
These splendid approaches occupy altogether about 
fifteen times the capacity of either house. The 
royal entrance (from the great tower at the south- 
west corner,) includes the Eobing Room and other 
splendid apartments. One of the galleries measures 
110 feet long. The interior of the House of Lords 
is very superb. It is (if not intrinsically, at least 
efiectively) the richest chamber erected since the 
fall of the mediaeval church architecture ; a splen- 
did effect being produced by gilding all the 
mouldings, (which include the whole of the stone 
and most of the wood work,) and covering the re- 



93 

maining surfaces with minute colored patterns. The 
House is nearly an exact double cube of 45 feet; 
the ceiling is divided by crossing beams into eighteen 
squares, corresponding to the arched compartments 
of the walls, which are all similar, except that the 
six on each side are occupied by windows with 
colored devices, and the three at each end by fres- 
coes, a species of painting now first attempted in 
England. These frescoes illustrate important events 
in English history. The throne is magnificently 
fitted up with tapestry superbly embroidered. 

The general effect on entering is gorgeous in the 
extreme : such a blaze of gilding, carvings, and 
colored decorations is not to be elsewhere found in 
England ; whilst the noble proportions of the apart- 
ment, the elaborately carved panels, and the bril- 
liant colors which meet the eye on every side, con- 
tribute to produce a coup-d^-oeil at once startling 
and beautiful. At the upper end is the throne, 
which her Majesty occupies on state occasions ; to 
the right is a chair for the Prince of Wales ; and 
to the left a corresponding one for Prince Albert. 
The Lord Chancellor sits immediately below the 
throne, on what is called the wool-sack ; and to the 
right and left are benches, covered with red mo- 
rocco leather, for the exclusive use cf the peers. 
There is a bar across the House at the end opposite 



94 

the throne, without which the Usher of the Black 
Rod is stationed. The House of Commons is very 
beautiful, though less ornate. A wondrous pile is 
this Palace of Westminster, which seems to stand 
in proud rivalry with the ancient and majestic 
structure in its immediate vicinity — Westminster 
Abbey. 

Prior to the erection of the present Houses of 
Parliament, the House of Lords formerly stood to 
the south of that of the Commons. The Com- 
mons first convened in what was called St. Ste- 
phen's Chapel, during the reign of Edward YL 
The old House of Lords was a plain room hung 
with tapestry representing the defeat of the Spanish 
Armada ; and there was an apartment close to it 
called the Painted Chamber, in which both Houses 
of Parliament held their conferences. Under the 
old House of Lords there was a cellar called the 
cellar of Guy Fawkes, because the gunpowder pre- 
pared for the destruction of the Lords and Com- 
mons was placed within it. The old Houses of 
Parliament were destroyed by fire in 1834. 

The Yictoria Tower reaches to 340 feet in 
height. What St. Peter's is to old Pome, the new 
Palace of Westminster is to old England, the ex- 
ponent of her wealth, taste, and skill. 

Crossing Yauxhall Bridge, the first object of in- 



95 

terest that arrests our attention is Yauxhall. Vaux- 
hall, or, as it was originally called, Fulkes' Hall, 
is supposed to have descended from a distin- 
guished Norman warrior in the reign of King John, 
who occupied and owned a manor on this site. 
During the Protectorate, the mansion was occupied 
by the well-known mechanical genius. Sir Samuel 
Morland. It was also at Yauxhall that the gay 
and gallant Duke of Monmouth, after his defeat at 
the battle of Sedgmoor, was met by a guard of sol- 
diers, who conducted him to the Tower. The mo- 
dern name of Yauxhall is associated with the gaie- 
ties of fashionable amusement : it is also rendered 
classic by the genius of Addison, Fielding, Gold- 
smith, Horace Walpole, Madame D'Arblay, and 
others. The glories of this place of resort have not 
yet passed away. It is beautifully laid out with 
shady vistas, lighted by a thousand variegated 
lamps, with sparkling fountains, and the joyous 
sounds of music and song. Evelyn, Pepys, and 
oj:hers refer to these celebrated gardens. Green, 
the aeronaut, it will be remembered, has made nu- 
merous ascents from this place. We recollect Yaux- 
hall sandwiches were the thinnest we e^^er saw or 
tasted ; it was the practice here, also, never to give 
change for any refreshments you might j)ur- 
chase at those far-famed gardens. 



96 

The ancient manor of Lambeth, even in its ear- 
liest associations, is replete with interest. It dates 
back about eight centuries, and has been the Archi- 




episcopal See since the eleventh century. Tiie ex- 
pense of its erection was imposed by the Pope upon 
Archbishop Boniface, as a punishment for an of- 
fence he had committed against His Holiness. The 
Lollards' Tower is rife with the melancholy story 
of the suffering followers of Wickliffe. The great 
hall is beautifully decorated, and there is a noble 
collection of rare books : this library was founded in 
1610. It contains upwards of 25,000 volumes, some 
of which are very choice. Monuments of Arch- 



"bishop Laud, Parker, Latimer, Cranmer, etc., are 
here. Many celebrated councils were held at Lam- 
beth Palace. The mncli admired Hall was built by 
Bishop Juxon, in 1662. Lambeth Palace was the 
ancient residence of the Archbishops of Canter- 
bury. At the top of one of its towers is the prison 
in which the Lollards were confined. 

The original building, erected in 1191, was first 
intended for a college of canons ; but, as the Pope 
refused his consent to its establishment, it was con- 
verted into an archiepiscopal palace, and has ever 
since been the town residence of the primate of all 
England. Great additions were made to it about 
1250, and in the fifteenth century Archbishop Chi- 
chele built a square stone tower towards the river, 
called the Lollards' Tower. Subsequent additions 
were made by Cranmer, Pole, Parker, Juxon, San- 
croft, and Tillotson ; but the whole, as seen from 
the outside, is a very dull-looking brick structure, 
little interesting except from its antiquity. The 
additions, completed in 1833, at a cost of nearly 
80,000Z., are executed in better taste. 

The Lollards, a sect of liberal opinions, grew out 
of a schism in the Komish Church, which took its 
rise about the middle of the 14th century. As ear- 
ly as 1322, one Walter Lollard is said to have suf- 
fered martyrdom at Cologne, for 'similar heretical 




THE HALL OF LAMBETH PALACE. 



99 

opin ons. Fierce persecutions pursued the Lollards ; 
the rirst victim was Sawtre, Eector of Lynn, in 
E'orfolk. He was burned in Smithfield, 1401. In 
1413, happened the ill-judged and fatal rising of the 
Lollards under Sir John Oldcastle. Thej were 
speedily overthrown, and the grievous spectacle of 
the stake and the faggot was the frequent result. 
The Lollards' Tower, the stronghold of tyranny and 
persecution, was used for the incarceration of these 
unfortunate victims of Homish bigotry. 

Eeturning over Westminster Bridge, we shall 
have to retrace our steps in passing up to the 
Strand and its vicinity. Instead, however, of 
going through Parliament-street, let us take 
a dingy, dirty, narrow lane running parallel, 
a little to the west. It is called King-street, and 
through this same thoroughfare were performed the 
royal progresses of the dainty Elizabeth, James L, 
and Charles L, to the Parliament House. Oliver 
Cromwell and "his iron band" trudged through 
the same street. Cromwell, indeed, once lived in 
it, as is seen by the following extracts from the 
newspapers of the time. 

Referring to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 
continues the writer : 

" This aftem ^one, when the House was rising, and had ad- 
journed untill the Thursday following, Cromwell did take his 



100 

leave of Master Speaker and all the members then present, and 
taking horse :t his house in King-street, he advanced towards 
Windsor, it being his wny towards Ireland, attended with a reti- 
nue of galhmt men for his life-guard ; the trumpets sounding 
all the way as they marched through the streets."* 

" This evening, about five of the clock, (July 10,) the Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland began his journey, by the way of Wind- 
sore, and so to Bristol ; he went forth in that state and equipage 
as the like has hardly been seen; himselfe in a coach of six 
gallant Flanders' mares, whitish-grey, divers coaches accom- 
panying him, and very many great officers of the army ; his 
life-gaurd consisting of 80 gallant men, the meanest whereof a 
commander or esquire in stately habit, with trumpets sounding 
almost to the shaking of Charing Cross, had it been now stand- 
ing. Of his lifc-gaurd many are collonels, and believe it, it's 
such a gaurd as is hardly to be parallel'd in the world. The 
Lieutenant's colors are white and blue." f 

The following passage from Ben Jonson's con- 
versations with Driimmond will speak for itself: — 

"The Irish having rob'd Spenser's goods, and burnt his 
house and a little child new born, he and his wife escaped ; and 
after, he died for lake of bread in King street, and refused 20 
pieces sent to him by my Lord of Essex, and said He was 
sorrie he had no time to spend them." 

In King Street, Westminster, lived Lord How- 
ard of Effingham, the great Lord Admiral agninst 
the Armada in Queen Elizabeth's time. Spenser, 
the poet, also resided in this street. 

As we emerge from this obscure street, we catch 

* Meroirius Pragmatisus, July, 1649. 
f Moderate Intelligencer, Ibid. 




HOUSE OF SIR PwOBERT PEEL. 



102 

a glimpse on tlie left of the well known mansion 
of the great Sir Robert Peel ; celebrated for its 
choice gallery of paintings. 

The name Charing-Cross is believed to be a 
corruption of Chere lieyne. The spot is said to 
have been classic since the days of Edward L, who 
erected a cross to the memory of his Queen 
Eleanor, whose body rested here on the journey 
from Lincolnshire to the Abbey of Westminster, 
where it received funeral honors. 

At this early period, Charing was a rural 
hamlet, on the highway between London and 
Westminster, consisting of no more than a dozen 
houses, or hovels. The associations of the statue 
which, in the following century, succeeded to the 
site of the cross, are generally of a painful charac- 
ter; but there is one noticeable exception. The 
exceedingly expressive and beautiful piece of 
sculpture, which represents Charles I. (the earliest 
equestrian public statue in London, by the way,) 
may be looked upon as a happy memorial of one of 
the most enlightened and munificent patrons of art 
England has known. This was cast, in 1633, for 
the Earl of Arundel, the famous collector, and to 
whom Charles is said to have been materially in- 
debted for his artistical taste. The subsequent 
history of the statue is very curious. During the 



103 

civil wars it was sold to a brazier in Holborn, of 
the name of Jolin Kiver, with orders to break it 
in pieces ; the brazier, however, was too much of 
a loyalist, or too much an admirer of art, which is 
the more likely, as the statue would hardly have 
been sold to a known favorer of the royal cause, or, 
which is likeliest of all, had too keen a perception 
of its pecuniary value at some future time, to obey 
his orders ; so he buried it, and satisfied the offi- 
cers of government by showing them some broken 
pieces of metal. That our " worthy brazier," as he 
has been called, was not overburdened with any 
very strict principles of honesty we know from an 
amusing anecdote related by M. d'Archenholz, who 
says he cast a vast number of handles of knives 
and forks in brass, which he sold as made of the 
broken statue. They were bought with great 
eagerness by both parties — by the loyalists as a 
mark of affection to their monarch, and by the 
republicans as a memorial of their triumph.* At 
the Restoration the statue was, of course, restored 
too. And, as a preliminary, a libation of blood 
was poured forth, as if to wash away the memory 
of its temporary degradation. Here, in the reign 
of Charles II., were executed Harrison, Scrope, 
Colonel Jones, Hugh Peters, Chaplain of Oliver 
* Cunningham. 



10 1: 

Cromwell, and others of those extraordinary men, 
who, in welcoming a bloody death, gave the last 
undoubted proofs that they were real patriots as 
well as bigots ; and, to mark beyond tli'e possibility 
of mistake the thirst for vengeance from which the 
act sprang, the executioners, inspirited by the pre- 
sence of the king at a short distance, and fulfilling, 
no doubt, the orders given to them, actually revel- 
led in cruelty, adding tortures that not even the 
execrable terms of the sentence could be supposed 
to include. When Coke was cut down and brought 
to be quartered, one Colonel Turner called to the 
sheriff's meji, to bring Mr. Peters to see what was 
doing ; which being done, the executioner came to 
him, and rubbing his bloody hands together, asked 
him, " how he liked that work ? " The answer of 
the brave and high-principled man was simply 
that he was not at all terrified, and that he might 
do his worst. And when he was upon the ladder, 
he said to the sheriff, " Sir, you have butchered 
one of the servants of God before my eyes, and 
have forced me to see it, in order to terrify and 
discourage me, but God has permitted it for my 
support and encouragement." These were not very 
attractive reminiscences to be connected with any 
statue, and the matter was still worse when the 
relation was so intimate as between the events 



10 5 

and the individual represented by the particular 
statue in question. For the time, at least, it ceased 
to be looked upon as anything but a party memo- 
rial, and it was treated accordingly. 

Sir Harry Yane, the younger; Isaac Burrow, 
the divine ; Rhodes, the bookseller, resided in 
the immediate vicinity. 

The birth-place of Ben Jonson is generally 
supposed to have been in Hartshorn Lane, Char- 
ing Cross. 

In Scotland Yard, Whitehall, lived Milton, in 
Cromwell's time. Here also lived Inigo Jones ; 
here died his successor, Sir John Denham, the 
poet of Cooper's Hill ; here lived Sir Christopher 
Wren ; and here, in a fantastic house, immorta- 
lized by Swift in some ludicrous lines, lived Sir 
John Yanbrugh. 

This vicinity was so called, it is said, after the 
kings of Scotland and their ambassadors, who were 
occasionally lodged there. 

In Cockspur street, near Pall JVIall East, stands 
the equestrian statue of George III. — the pious 
but pertinacious potentate who persisted in the 
coercive taxation of his American Colonies till he 
lost them. At the corner of Suffolk-street are two 
societies of British Painters and Sculptors. The 
Poyal College of Physicians is situated opposite St. 



1 T) 

Martin's Churcb, which was erected about 1721, and 
has a beautiful portico which is an object of univer- 
sal admiration. The interior of the church is very 
splendid, and is admirably constructed, both as to 
convenience and adaptation for sound. 

In the churchyard of St. Martin's the following 
eminent persons have been buried : Sir John Da- 
vys, the poet; Dobson, called the English Yan 
Dyck ; Stanley, the editor of JEschylus ; ISTell 
Gwynne ; Hon. Kobert Boyle, the philosopher; 
Roubiliac, the sculptor; John Hunter, the surgeon ; 
James Smith, one of the authors of the " Rejected 
Addresses." The register records the baptism of 
Lord Bacon, w^ho was born, in 1561, in York 
House, in the Strand, on the site of Buckingham- 
street. 

British Institution, 'No. 33 Pall Mall, establish- 
ed in 1805, on a plan formed by Sir Thomas 
Bernard, for the purpose of encouraging British 
Artists, and affording opportunities of exhibiting 
historical subjects to a greater advantage than in 
the rooms of the Royal Academy, then exhibited 
at Somerset House. The gallery purchased for its 
use was erected by Alderman Boy dell, for the ex- 
hibition of paintings for his edition of Shakspeare, 
and it is well suited for its present purpose. Over 
the entrance is a piece of sculpture, by Banks, re- 



107 

presenting Shakspeare accompanied by Painting 
and Poetry. 

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, was 
erected in 1837, from designs by Mr. Wilkins. 
The gallery, which is nearly five hundred feet in 
length, consists of a central portico of eight Corin- 
thian columns in front and two in depth, ascended 
by steps at each end at an elevation of eighteen 
feet from the ground, and two wings, each orna- 
mented with four Corinthian columns. The por- 
tico is surmounted by a dome, and the whole 
range of edifice by a balustrade. The portion 
of the building to the right side of the portico is 
devoted to the Koyal Academy, and that to the 
left to the I^ational Gallery, the two being con- 
nected by the grand staircase and vestibule, divid- 
ing it into two equal parts. The Gallery originated 
in the purchase by Government, in 1824, of Mr. 
Angerstein's collection of thirty-eight pictures for 
£57,000. In 1826, Sir George Beaumont made a 
formal gift of sixteen pictures, valued at the time at 
7500 guineas. Important bequests by the Rev. W. 
Holwell Carr, Lord Farnborough and others, and 
additional purchases by Government, have brought 
the collection, in less than a quarter of a century, 
to two hundred and twenty-eight pictures, indepen- 
dently of Vernon's noble gift of one hundred and 



iU8 

sixty works of the English school. Paintings by 
most of the great names in art grace this superb 
collection. 

This celebrated donation is placed in a suite 
of rooms in Marlborough House, Pall Mall. 
These pictures, which are exclusively of the Eng- 
lish school, are to be hereafter assigned a suitable 
position in some of the apartments of the National 
Gallery. By the way, a new Gallery of Art is being 
projected. Hyde Park is suggested as its locale. 

From Morley's Hotel, Trafalgar Square, may 
be seen the Nelson Monument, the statues, foun- 
tains, the fine portico of the National Gallery, St. 
Martin's Church, Northumberland House, etc. 

The north side of the entrance to the Strand 
lay open to the fields, to St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, 
St. Giles's-in-the-Eields, and Covent Garden, as 
late as the reign of Charles I. 

Northumberland House, Charing Cross, is one 
of the most magnificent town mansions of the 
nobility, and is a fine specimen of the architecture 
of the time of James I. ; it was built by Bernard 
Jansen, a Flemish architect. The lion on the central 
parapet is the crest of the Percies. This magnificent 
edifice contains one hundred and fifty apartments, 
and a spacious gallery of rare j)aintings. All that is 
old of the present building is the portal towards the 



109 

Strand ; but even of this there is a good deal that 
is new. The house is massively furnished and in 
good taste. The staircase is stately ; the Pompeian 
room most elegant, and the state Drawing-room, 
with its ten lights to the east, and its noble copies 
after Raphael, very magnificent — a room, it is said, 
not to be matched in London. Many of the fire- 
places, fenders, and fire-irons are of silver. The 
large Sevres vase in the centre of the great room 
w^as presented by Charles X., at his coronation in 
1825, to the Duke of Northumberland, then repre- 
sentative of Great Britain at the French court. 

"We now leave I^orthumberland House, and 
wend our course eastward, through what old Stowe 
calls " a way or street of shops, theatres and in- 
surance offices," — the Strand. The thoroughfare is 
singularly rich in memories of the past. This 
was, in Elizabethan days, a suburban and somewhat 
aristocratic retreat. " Anciently," says Selden, 
" the noblemen lay within the city for safety and 
security, but the Bishops' houses were by the 
water side, because they were sacred persons whom 
nobody would hurt." As many as nine of these 
priestly dignitaries possessed " inns " or " hostels " 
on the Strand, near the banks of. the river, at 
the time of the Eeformation. Passing Himger- 
ford-Market we approach the site of old York 



110 

House : the spot is now known by the name 
of York-buildings. In 1698 Peter the Great 
lived " in a large house at the bottom of York- 
buildings :" and 1708 the Earl of Oxford. Samuel 
Pepys, brother of the historian, also resided here. 
The great Lord Bacon, the son of the Archbishop 
of York, was born at this house. York House and 
estate were assured by Act of Parliament, in 1624, 
to the Crown, and subsequently granted to the 
Duke of Buckingham. The Duke employed Inigo 
Jones to rebuild a great part of it in a style of 
much magnificence. The Duke lived here in the 
most expensive manner, till his assassination by 
Felton, when it became the property of his son. 
The York Stairs, or AYater Gate, at^the bottom of 
Buckingham-street, will give some idea of the 
beauty of the building, of which this is now the 
sole remnant. This gate has been universally ad- 
mired, and pronounced to be the most perfect 
piece of building that does honor to the name of 
Inigo Jones. It is planned in so exquisite a 
taste, formed of such equal and harmonious parts, 
and adorned with such appropriate decorations, 
that nothing seems to be required. 

Here resided Sir Harry Yane, Lilly the as- 
trologer, and Jacob Tonson and Andrew Millar, 
the booksellers and publishers. 



Ill 

Craven-street, leading towards the river, merits 
honorable mention as having been the abode of 
Benjamin Franklin ; he dwelt at the house 'No. 7 
in this street. James Smith, one of the authors 
of' the "Rejected Adresses," resided in this 
street, at No, 27. He died here in 1839. King 
William-street and the Lowther Arcade, on the 
north side of the Strand, deserve a passing no- 
tice as improved specimens of street architecure. 

At the south-west corner of Korfolk-street re- 
sided the celebrated William Penn. At twenty 
years of age he presented himself to his astonished 
parent, the Admiral, in Quaker guise, and saluted 
him : " Friend Penn, how dost thee do ? " Much 
contention ensued concerning the broad-brim. In 
this house afterwards lived another descendant of 
the Quakers, — the renowned antiquary Dr. Birch. 
In the same street also dwelt for more than thirty 
years Dr. Brocklesby, the friend and physician of 
Johnson. 

Opposite King William-street formerly stood 
Denham House. Here many noble personages 
lived ; among the number the hapless Lady Jane 
Grey and Sir Walter Raleigh. In " Aubrey's 
Letters " may be found the following description 
of Sir Walter's apartments : 

" After he came to lis greatnes he lived there, or in some 



112 

apartments of it, I well remember his study, which was on a 
little turret, that looked into and over the Thames, and had the 
prospect, which is as pleasant, perhaps, as any in the world, 
and which not only refreshes the eye-sight, but cheers the 
spirits, and (to speak my mind,) I believe enlarges an Ingenious 
man's thoughts." 

The present range of buildings called the 
Adelphi now occupies the site of Denham House. 
When the Adelphi buildings were begun in 1708, 
the Court and City were in direct opposition, and 
the citizens were glad, in any little way in their 
power, to show their hostility to the Court. The 
Brothers Adam were patronized by the King, and 
having in their Adelphi buildings encroached, it 
was thought, too far upon the Thames, and thus 
interfered with the rights of the Lord Mayor as 
Conservator of the river, the citizens applied to 
Parliament for protection. The feeling was in 
favor of the Court and of the new improvements, 
and the citizens lost their cause. 

David Garrick resided, in great style, in 
the centre house, Xo. 5, of Adelphi-terrace, 
from 1772 till his death, in 1779. In Osborne's 
Hotel, in John Street, Adelphi, the King of the 
Sandwich Islands resided while on a visit to the 
country, in the reign of George TV. The popular 
song, " The King of the Cannibal Islands," was 
written at this time. It was on one occasion when 



113 

walking along Adelplii-terrace tliat Johnson, in 
the last year of his life, accompanied by his faith- 
ful Boswell, and in reply to the remark that 
they had lost two friends who once lived there — 
Beauclerk and Garrick tenderly replied, " Ay, 
Sir, and two such friends as cannot be supplied." 

Salisbury-street stands on the site of Salisbury 
House, the residence of Sir Robert Cecil, the 
minister of Elizabeth. The famous astrological 
almanack-maker. Partridge, facetiously referred 
to by Swift under the name of Bickerstaff, lived in 
this street. Partridge, in a great rage, once knock- 
ed a man down, opposite his own door, for crying 
about the town an account of his death. The re- 
port, he assured every one, was false, and he convinc- 
ed the fabricator of it with, most striking effect ; 
but it proved fatal to his almanack. 

A little beyond Salisbury-street lodged old 
Thomas Parr when he came to London to be ex- 
hibited as a rare specimen of longevity to Charles I. 

A little to the east, on the river side of the 
Strand, stood the ancient palace of the Savoy, one 
of the most imposing of the old buildings on the 
banks of the Thames. The Chapel attached to it 
is all that remains to indicate the spot. 

The original palace was built in the Strand, 
near tbe Thames, by the Earl of Savoy and Eich- 



114 

mond, uncle of Queen Eleanor, who was the wife 
of Henry III. King John of France was con- 
fined in the Savoy in the year 1356, after the 
battle of Poictiers. Twenty-five years after this, 
it was destroyed by "Wat Tyler and his fellow 
rebels, in 1381. It was afterwards rebuilt and en- 
dowed by King Henry YIL as a hospital for 
one hundred poor people. Fleetwood describes 
the Savoy in 1581 as "the chief nurserie of evil 
people, rogues and masterless men." King 
Charles I. established a French church there. 

In 1666 it was used as a hospital for the 
sick and wounded, in the great Dutch War. 

Strype says, in 1750, " this Savoy House 
is now in a ruinous condition. In the midst 
of its buildings is a very spacious hall, the 
walls three feet thick, of stone without and stone 
and brick within." The Savoy was once a house 
of refuge for poor debtors when pursued by their 
creditors. A paragraph in the London Postman 
of 1696, says, " a person going into the Savoy to 
collect a debt due him was seized by the inhabi- 
tants, and according to usual custom^ dipped in tar 
and rolled in feathers ;" after this novel adminis- 
tration of justice, the unlucky creditor who had 
the temerity to go in quest of his debtor was put 
into a wheel-barrow and trundled into the Strand, 



115 

where lie was dumped upon the pavement. This 
was paying a premium to roguery with a ven- 
geance. 

The meetings at the Restoration of Charles II. 
of the commissioners for the revision of the Litur- 
gy took place in the Savoy, twelve bishops ap- 
pearing for the Established Church, and Calamy, 
Baxter, Reynolds, and others, for the Presbyte- 
rians. This was called " The Savoy Conferences'^ 
and under that name has become matter of English 
history. Fuller, author of " The English Worthies," 
was at this time lecturer at the Savoy, and Cowley, 
the poet, a candidate at Court for the office of mas- 
ter. 

Tlie next street we meet on our journey east- 
ward is Wellington-street, which leads to Waterloo 
Bridge. Waterloo Bridge, one of the noblest 
of the seven or eight that breast what Spencer 
calls " the silver-streaming Thames," was built in 
1817. It is of granite, and has nine semi-elliptical 
arches, each 120 feet span ; the entire length of 
the bridge from the ends of the abutments is 1380 
feet. The bridge is on a level with the Strand, 
and of one uniform level throughout. It affords 
a noble view of Somerset-House. The toll charg- 
ed is a halfpenny each person each way, and the re- 
ceipts fro 01 foot-passengers in a half-year of 1850 



116 

was £4676 17s. lid., received from 2,2M,910 pei*- 
sons, so that in only six months the population of 
London may be said to pay for passing over. 
Canova is said to have declared it to be the finest 
work of modern times : and that " it was worth a 
visit from the remotest corner of the earth." M. 
Dupin characterised it as "a colossal monument 
worthy of Sesostris and the Caesars." 

The poets Denham and Poj^e have sung the 
praises of the Thames, and Wordsworth's famous 
sonnet, composed upon^ one of its bridges, the 
reader perchance may be curious to see. It is as 
follows : 

" Earth has not anything to show more fair: — 
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by 
A sight so touching in its majesty : 
This city now doth like a garment wear 
The beauty of the morning ; — silent, bare, 
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie 
Open unto the fields and to the sky ; 
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. 
Never did sun more beautifully steep 
In his first splendor, valley, rock or hill. 
Ne'er saw, ne'er felt, a calm so deep. 
The river glideth at his own sweet will ; 
Dear God ! the very houses seem asleep; 
And all that mighty host is lying still !" 

Facing Wellington-street formerly stood " Old 
Exeter 'Change," Burleigh-street now occupies its 



117 

■site. It was in an npper room of Exeter 'Change 
that the mortal remains of the poet Gaj lay in state. 
The house remained in possession of the Crown 
until Queen Elizabeth granted it to Sir William 
Cecil, Lord Treasurer, who rebuilt it, when it was 
called Burleigh House. Here the haughty Queen 
once visited Lord Burleigh. 

On the opposite side of the Strand formerly 
stood Exeter House, the residence of the great Lord 
Burleigh. A portion of the building was standing 
till within the past twenty years. It was known as 
the Old Exeter 'Change, and used as a menagerie. 
Exeter Hall, a spacious building used for concerts 
and religious meetings, has been erected upon a 
portion of this site. The Hall is a noble apartment 
measuring one hundred and thirty-six feet in length 
by nearly eighty in width ; it has the most mag- 
nificent organ in London. 



118 



CHAPTER VI 



Bow-street— Co vent Garden— Anecdote of Dryden nnd Tonaon— Pt. Paul's 
Church, Covent Garden— The Garrick Club— Will's Coffee House and 
others— Somerset House— King's College — St. Clement Dane's — Lin- 
coln's Inn Square— Lincoln's Inn Fields — Execution of Lord William 
Russell — The Soane Museum — Franklin's Printing Office — Gray's Inn — 
Temple Bar — Ancient Custom of Closing the Gates— Booksellers of 
early Times — Dr. Johnson's Residences — Child's Banking House. 



O THICKLY clustered are the his- 

"torical memories of this part of the 

city, that we are puzzled which route 

to prefer ; our course for a while must 

therefore be a little out of the direct line. 

To the north of the Strand, and not far 
distant, is Bow-street, which, according to 
Strype, was so named from " its running in 
shape of a bent bow." Modern improvements, how- 
ever, have deprived it of this characteristic feature. 
Bow-street is famous as having been the locale of 
Fielding, the novelist ; Johnson lived in this street 
for a short time ; and Waller, the poet, also resid- 
ed here when he wrote his famous panegyric upon 
Cromwell ; it was in this same street, also, that Sir 




119 

Roger de (/overlej, according to the Spectator, liv- 
ed. Here, likewise, in 1661, was born the celebrat- 
ed statesman, the Earl of Oxford ; Wycherlj, the 
dramatist ; Gibbons, the sculptor ; and the Earl 
of Dorset. 

Covent Garden, which is in the immediate vici- 
nity, took its name fram having been an enclosed 
garden attached to the Convent belonging to the Ab- 
bots of Westminster, in the days of the Protector 
Somerset. The estate was afterwards transferred to 
the Bedford family. The Bedford Coffee House, 
under the Piazza, was frequented by Garrick, 
Foote, Murphy, and others. 

Jacob Torison, the bookseller, had a house in 
Bow-street, in which he drove some of his hardest 
bargains with Dryden. The bookseller was a Whig, 
the poet a Tory, and it suited the pecuniary inte- 
rests of the former that Dryden's forthcoming trans- 
lation of Yirgil should be dedicated to King Wil- 
liam. The author would not consent, although 
Tonson, in furtherance of his own views, had di- 
rected the engraver employed upon the illustra- 
tions of the work, " to aggravate," as Sir Walter 
Scott pleasantly expresses it, " the nose of ^neas 
in the plates into a sufficier: resemblance to the 
hooked promontory on the king's countenance.'' 
Dryden still held out, for though in want of 



120 

money he had a conscience. Tonson considering, 
like other tradesmen, that this was very presump- 
tuous in a man who lacked ten guineas, stopped the 
supplies to bring him to reason. Still the poet re- 
mained conscientious ; and, failing to induce Ton- 
son to accommodate him by fair means with the 
money he needed, he sent him the following verses 
to his house in Bow-street, as a poetical portrait of 
a shabby bookseller : — 

" With leering looks, bull-faced, and freckled fair, 
With two left legs and Judas-colored hair, 
And frouzy pores that taint the ambient air." 

" And tell the dog, when you deliver it," said 
Dryden to his messenger, " that the man who wrote 
these lines can write more!" The money was 
paid immediately. 

St. Paul's Church, Co vent Garden, was in its 
day pronounced a mai-vel of architectural skill, but 
its claim to this distinction has long since been deni- 
ed. Here repose the ashes of several distinguished 
individuals. Sir Henry Herbert ; Armstrong, the 
poet ; Wycherley, the dramatist ; Butler, the author 
of "Hudibras;" Sir Peter Lely, the painter; 
Macklin, the comedian ; and Dr. "VValcot. In King- 
street, Covent Garden, at Ko. 35, the Garrick Club 
used to hold its meetings ; and in a dark obscure 
alley, named Kose-street, lived Samuel Butler, and 



12 1 

here i is believed he breathed his last. Sheridan 
lived in Bedfoi "■ Street, leading to the Strand ; 
here also resided the Earl of Chesterfield. 

One of the most celebrated rendezvous of the 
literati of the last century was Will's Coffee-house, 
'No. 23, on the north side of Great Russell-street, 
Covent Garden, at the end of Bow-street. This 
was the favorite resort of Drjden, who had here 
his own chair, in winter bj the fire-side, in sum- 
mer in the balcony ; the company met in the first 
floor, and there smoked ; and the young beaux and 
wits were sometimes honored with a pinch out of 
Dryden's snuff-box. Will's was the resort of men 
of genius till 1710. At No. 8 Great Russell- 
street, Davis the bookseller lived. It was here 
that Johnson, who made frequent visits to this 
worthy bibliopole, was first introduced to Boswell. 

Tom's, No. 17, Great Russell-street, had nearly 
700 subscribers, at a guinea a-head, from 1764 to 
1768, and had its card, conversation, and coffee- 
rooms, where assembled Johnson, Garrick, Murphy, 
Goldsmith, Reynolds, Foote, and other celebri- 
ties : the tables and books of the club are, we 
believe, yet preserved in the house. Button's, " over 
against " Tom's, was the receiving house for con- 
tributions to the " Guardian," in a lion-head box, the 

aperture for which remains in the wall to mark the 
6 



122 

place. Button had been servant to Lady Warwick, 
wliom Addison married ; and the house was fre- 
quented by Pope, Steele, Swift, Arbuthnot, and 
Addison. The lion's head for a letter-box, the 
"best head in England," was set up in imitation 
of the celebrated lion at Venice : it was removed 
from Button's to the Shakspeare's Head, under the 
Arcade in Covent Garden ; and, in 1T51, was placed 
in the Bedford, next door. In York-street, Covent 
Garden, may be seen the celebrated book-establish- 
ment of Henry G. Bohn, who is supposed to pos- 
sess the largest collection of costly illustrated works 
in England. 

Returning to the Strand we approach Somerset 
House, nearly opposite which is Drury Court, for- 
merly Little Drury-lane, and once the only avenue 
to the theatre. This black and dirty passage in 
former times conducted to a road by the side of 
Craven House, and other princely mansions, to St. 
Giles's-in-the-Fields and the country. The road was 
lined by hedges, and partially overshadowed by 
trees. A little beyond this court is Catherine-street, 
which takes its name from Catherine of Braganza, 
the queen of Charles 11. Here, in the reign of 
Edward YL, a stream of water ran to the Thames, 
over which was a bridge, called Strand Bridge. 
Brydges-street, which is a continuation of Cathe 



123 

fine-street, built about 1637, was named after 
George Brydges Lord Chandos. 

Somerset House o^.cupies the site of a princely 
mansion, built by Somerset, the Protector, brother 
of Lady Jane Seymour.. He had not long occupied 
it, when he was taken to the scaffold : it afterwards 
became the property of the Crown, and was a 
royal residence during the reigns of Elizabeth and 
Charles 11. The present building is in the form of 
a quadrangle : it was completed in 1786. As seen 
from the opposite side of the river, or from the 
adjacent bridges, the appearance of this vast range 
of buildings is very imposing: it presents, indeed, 
one of the noblest fagades in London. There are 
no less than 3,600 windows in Somerset House, 
a sufficient proof of its vast magnitude. There are 
about nine hundred government officials regularly 
employed in the several departments of the Stamp 
Office, Excise, Taxes, Eevenue, etc. The Strand 
front is devoted to several learned societies and 
schools of art. Under the vestibule is a fine bust 
of Sir Isaac Kewton. Herschell, Watt, Davy, 
Hallam, Reynolds, WoUaston, Walpole and others 
distinguished in arts and letters, have convened 
within these apartments ; it was in the rooms of the 
Eoyal Academy that the las*: and best of Eeynolds's 
discourses were delivered. Man^ notable person- 




SOMERSET HOUSE. 



125 

ages figure historically in the records of old Somer- 
set House : but we cannot particularize, saving 
that Inigo Jones breathed his last in some apart- 
ment of the building, and that the body of Crom- 
well was laid in state in the great hall, his escut- 
cheon being then placed over the entrance gate. 

King's College, a little to the eastward, was built 
in 1831. The writer was present on the occasion 
of its opening, when Dr. Lardner delivered his in- 
augural address on natural philosophy. He exhi- 
bited his splendid new apparatus, and charmed his 
audience with one of the most masterly discourses 
on elementary science ever pronounced. This 
noble edifice covers an extensive area and is ap- 
proached through a semi- circular archway from 
the Strand. The college measures three hundred 
and four feet in length ; in the centre is a spa- 
cious chapel, beneath which is a hall for exa- 
mination and lecture rooms, library and museum. 

Pursuing our way eastward St. Clement Dane's 
is the next object worthy of note. It stands in the 
centre of the street, and is rather an imposing look- 
ing structure. This church is so styled, it is sup- 
posed, in consequence of a massacre of the Danes, 
which took place in this vicinity ; or because Ha- 
rold Harefoot was buried there. It was built by 
Alfred the Great. The name St Clement probably 



126 

took its rise from Pope Clement III., the friend of 
the Templars, to whom the church belonged. It 
was rebuilt under the direction of Sir Christopher 
Wren. Dr. Johnson used to attend Divine Service 
at this church, and there has recently been a tablet 
to this effect over the pew he used to occupy. The 
chimes may still be heard at midnight, as Falstaff 
describes having heard them with Justice Shallow. 

ISTathaniel Lee, the dramatist, is buried in the 
churchyard of St. Clement's. Here also repose the 
remains of Joe Miller, whose name has been so 
long a byeword for bad jokes. 

Lincoln's Inn Square, which is approached 
through Portugal-street, dates back to the age of 
Elizabeth. On the south side of the Square lived 
many eminent jurists : Erskine, Mansfield, Cam- 
den and others. The High Court of Chancery is 
close by, where the judicial wisdom, and profound 
erudition of Chancellors Guildford, Thurlow, Eldon, 
Lyndhurst and Brougham, astounded and delight- 
ed the legal profession. We well remember drop- 
ping in here occasionally to listen to the eloquence 
of Brougham, and how we were amused with the lu- 
dicrous exhibition of his Lordship's nose, as it ner- 
vously worked when in the heat of argument. The 
Chapel adjoining has nothing very remarkable save 
the record of an honest lawyer. His name was Sir 



12 7 

John Strange, and the inscription said to have been 
on his monument as follows : 



" Here lies an honest lawyer — that is Strange 



P» 



The large house at the north-west corner of Lin- 
coln's Inn Fields is said to have been where Ben 
Jonson once worked as a bricklayer, with a trowel 
in one hand and a Homer in the other. The story, 
however, savors more of fable than fact. This 
mansion was built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
for the Duke of Newcastle. 

Lincoln's Inn boasts of the following eminent 
students : — Sir Thomas More ; Lord Keeper Eger- 
ton ; Dr. Donne ; Oliver Cromwell ; Sir Matthew 
Hale ; Sir John Denham ; Lords Mansfield and 
Erskine ; Lyndhurst, and Brougham. 

Lincoln's Inn Fields was the memorable site of 
the execution of the noble patriot Lord "William 
Russell. On his way from !Newgate, turning into 
Little Queen Street, it is said he shed tears at the 
remembrance of his heroic wife, and remarked to 
the Dean of Canterbury, " I have often turned to 
the other hand (towards his own house) with great 
comfort, but now I turn to this with greater.'* 
Tillotson accompanied him in the coach to the fatal 
scaffold ; the details of his execution are among the 
Bad recitals of English history. 



128 

On the north side of Lincoln's Inn Fields is the 
house of Sir John Soane, the architect of the Bank 
of England. The Soane Museum contains many 
curiosities, among them the Sarcophagus, discover- 
ed by Belzoni in 1816, in a tomb in Egyyt. It is 
formed of one single piece of alabaster more than 
nine feet long, covered with hieroglyphics. ' When 
a lamp is placed within it it becomes transparent, 
although nearl}^ three inches thick. On the interior 
of the bottom is a full-length figure, representing the 
Egyptian Isis, the guardian of the dead. It was 
purchased by Soane for £2000. Sir Gardner Wil- 
kinson considers that it is a cenotaph rather than a 
sarcophagus, and the name inscribed to be that of 
Osiris, father of Ramases the Great. 

Here also may be seen the first four editions in 
folio of Shakspeare : and a copy of Pennant's Lon- 
don, profusely illustrated, which cost £650. 

Duke-street, leading out of Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
will be especially interesting to the American tou- 
rist as the scene of the early career of Benjamin 
Franklin. It was here he worked as a journeyman 
printer to the close of his stay in England. The 
reader will well remember his own relation of the 
frugal meal and humble apartment which content- 
ed him in his early life. 

Forty years afterwards, when the statesman and 




TEMPLE BAR. 



180 

philosopher went on a mission to England, he did 
not forget to pay a visit to his old office. His 
printing press, it will be remembered, has been 
brought to this country, and is in safe keeping, in 
his native city, as a relic. 

In Gray's Inn Lane once lived the two distin- 
guished personages, Hampden and Pym. 

The hall of Gray's Inn was built in 1560. 
Among other eminent students were Edward Hall, 
the chronicler ; George Gascoigne, the poet ; the 
great Lord Burleigh ; Lord Bacon ; Bradshaw, who 
sat as president at the trial of Charles I. ; and Jo- 
seph Eitson, the antiquary. 

Wending our devious way down Chancery-lane, 
a street that links together several " Inns of Court," 
and which is consequently redolent of the bag- wigs 
and black gowns of barristers, we at length reach 
Temple Bar. This picturesque-looking gate occu- 
pies the site of the ancient City boundary to the 
west. It was built by Wren, in the year 1670. 

On the east side, in niches, are the statues of 
Queen Elizabeth and King James I., and on the 
west side those of Charles I. and Charles II. It 
derives its name from its contiguity to the Temple. 
On the tops of Temple Bar there used to be display- 
ed the unsightly exhibition of traitors' heads. Wal- 
pole, in one of his letters, dated August 16th, 1746, 



1 3 1 

says — " I have been this morning at the Tower, 
and passed under the new heads at Temple Bar, 
where people make a ti-ade of letting spying-glasses 
at a halfpenny a look." There is an ancient and 
absurd custom connected with Temple Bar which 
may not be known generally. The gates are in- 
variably closed by the city authorities whenever 
the sovereign has occasion to enter the city, and at 
no other time. The visit of the sovereign is, indeed, 
a rare occurrence, confined to a thanksgiving in 
St. Paul's for some important victory, or the open- 
ing of a public building like the Xew Royal Ex- 
change. A herald sounds a trumpet before the 
gate — another herald knocks — a parley ensues — the 
gates are then thrown open, and the Lord Mayor 
for the time being makes over the sword of the city 
to the sovereign, who graciously returns it. Stow 
describes a scene like this, when Queen Elizabeth 
was on her way to St. Paul's to return thanks for 
the defeat of the Armada. '' Over the gate of 
Temple Bar were placed the waites of the citie : 
and at the same bar the Lord Mayor and his bre- 
thren the Aldermen, in scarlet, received and wel- 
comed her Majesty to her City and Chamber, deli- 
vering to her hands the sceptre [sword], which 
after certain speeches had, her Highness redeliver- 
ed to the Mayor, and he again taking his horse, 



i ;i 2 

bare the same beture her." When Cromwell and 
the Parliament dined in the city in state, on the 
17th of June, 16i9, the same ceremony was ob- 
served ; " the Mayor delivering up the sword to the 
speaker," says Whitelocke, " as he used to do to the 
king." Queen Anne went through the same cere- 
mony on her way to St. Paul's to return thanks for 
the Duke of Marlborough's victories, and recently 
Queen Victoria, on her way to Cornhill to open the 
Royal Exchange. . 

Fleet-street and the Strand, be it remembered, 
are named from the fact, that in early times the 
former had a rivulet, now running under ground, 
and the latter was then the bank of the Thames 

Pleasant memories cluster around the precincts 
of Fleet-street and its numerous courts and alleys, 
for Johnson, Dryden, Cowper, Goldsmith, Richard- 
son, and Lamb have made these places classic 
ground. Booksellers' shops also there were former- 
ly not a few in this vicinity. 

"Wynkyn de Worde, the celebrated printer, 
lived at the sign of the " Falcon," in Fleet-street, 
and the house over Falcon Court yet exists with the 
date, 1667, uj)on it ; Murray, the successor to Mil- 
ler, lived here, when he published Irving's Sketch 
Book ; Byron's Childe Harold, and the earliest 
Nos. of the Quarterly Review, The first English 



183 

tragedy, strictly so called, was printed at the sign 
of the Falcon, in 1561. Curll, the eminent pub- 
lisher, kept his shop " over against " St. Dunstan's 
Church, with the sign of the " Dial and Bible." 

On the south side of Fleet-street, between the 
Temple Gates, may be seen an ancient house, once 
occupied by the no less celebrated bookseller Ber- 
nard Lintot. The sign of his shop was the " Cross 
Keys." Pinson also lived in this street. ISTear the 
junction of Chancery-lane and Fleet-street lived 
Cowley, Drayton, and Isaac "Walton. The cele- 
brated orientalist, Sir "William Jones, lived in 
Lamb's-buildings, Temple, which Goldsmith and 
Johnson have immortalized by their presence and 
their pens. The Rainbow, the Mitre, the Cock, 
and other celebrated taverns in Fleet-street and its 
vicinity, were among the places of most frequent 
resort of the literati of those days. 

Dr. Johnson seems to have had a fickle fancy 
for changing his lodgings ; it has been estimated 
from first to last he occupied no less than seventeen 
different houses or apartments, in or near London. 
At one time he lived at 'No. 4 Gough Square ; it 
was here he compiled, in part, his Dictionary, and 
other works. Bolt Court is also another locality 
rendered classic by his name, and the Mitre Ta- 
vern was where the Doctor was accustomed to 



keep such late hours. It was here he so frequently 
met with his especial friends, Boswell and Gold- 
smith. 

In Fleet-street, near Temple Bar, still exists the 
banking-house of Child and Co., the most ancient 
in London. The private banking account of Charles 
II. was kept here, and is still extant. 

Ko. 37 Fleet-street presents one of the most 
superb edifices of its class in London — it is the 
banking establishment of Messrs. Hoare ; and like 
that of Messrs. Child, boasts great antiquity. It 
was originated by Richard Hoare, in 1693. 



185 



CHAPTER VII. 



Ticket Porters— the Temple— Temple Church— Hall of Middle Temple— An- 
ecdotes of Goldsmith and Johnson — St. Duustan's Church — Bolt Court 
— Booksellers of Fleet-street — St. Bride's Church — Salisbury Square — 
Bridewell — Monastery of the BlacUfriars — Blackfriars' Bridge — Play- 
house Yard — Printing-house Square — the "Times" — Baynard Castle — 
Ludgate Hill — Old Bailey — Green Arbor Court— St. Sepulchre's Church 
— Stationers' Hall — Paternoster Row — The Chapter Coffee House — Pan- 
yer Alley — Warwick Lane— Newgate Market. 




ROWDED as this busy 
tboroiighfare is, let us 
linger a moment to catch 
a glimpse of the many pha- 
ses of life that are present- 
ed to our view. We are 
now in the very heart of 
the mighty Babel : here 
are all the various members of society eagerly press- 
ing their way in pursuit of their several occupa- 
tions — from the rich merchant to the " ticket por- 
ter," while the half famished beggar boy is con- 
tentedly feasting upon the meagre crust which the 
hand jf charity has sparingly bestowed. We well 



1 ; J 

remember, years ago, when " ticket porters " were 
in vogue in this neighborhood, a singular speci- 
men of the class, who was afflicted with St. 
Yitas's dance. It was amusing to see him start 
off all at once without any apparent object in view, 
and running impetuously for some time suddenly 
" pull up," as if to reflect upon his precipitate 
course, and convulsively twirling his fingers, and 
making strange grimaces, as if repentant of his 
folly, quietly retrace his steps. We now pass 
through a dark archway, the Temple Gate, which 
leads us to one of the most interesting historic relics 
of the City. The Temple is of great antiquity, dat- 
ing back as far as 1185. At the downfall of the 
Knights' Templars, in 1313, the Temple was be- 
stowed upon the Earl of Pembroke, at whose death 
the propert}^ passed to the Knights of St. John of 
Jerusalem, by whom the Inner and Middle Tem- 
ples were leased to the students of law, in 1326. 
Spencer makes the following allusion to this lo- 
cality : — 

" Those brieky towers 
The which on Thames' broad aged back doe ride, 
Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers, 
There whilom wont the Templar knights to bide, 
Till they decayed through pride." 

The Church of the Knights' Templars is model- 
led in part after the TToly Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 



137 




EXTERI OR VI] 



As you enter the great circular tower, wliich is of 
Norman architecture, the attention is arrested by 
the monumental effigies, by some supposed to be 
representations of the ancient knights ; this, how- 
ever, is doubted by other antiquarians. 

The Choir, which has been recently restored 
and beautified, presents a splendid specimen of 
the architectural taste of the twelfth century. 

The learned Selden is buried here, the white 
marble monument to his memory being placed to 
the left of the altar, and immediately over his re- 
mains. In the burial ground to the east of the 
Choir, aid outside of the building, repose the 



138 

ashes of Oliver Goldsmith. His funeral took 
place on the evening of the 9th of April, 1774. 




INTERIOK VIKW. 



The place is undistinguished ; but a tablet recent- 
ly erected on the north side of the Choir com- 
memorates the circumstance 

Many learned divines have been lecturers in 
Temple Church, among the number Hooker, the 
author of the 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' and Archbishop 
Usher, who preached the funeral sermon of Selden. 
The organ at thir church was long celebrated as 
l)eingthe grandest in London. Shakespeare lays the 



189 

scene of the first part of Henry YI., it may be 
remembered, in Temple Gardens. We first bear 
of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in connection with 
its performance in this fine old Hall. These gar- 
dens front the Thames, and are laid out with 
great taste, and are ornamented with stately trees. 
The Hall of the Middle Temple is venerable and 
magnificent ; it has witnessed more than one royal 
banquet. Crown Office Row, Temple, was the 
birthplace of Charles Lamb ; he says in " Elia," 
" Cheerful Crown Office Row, place of my kindly 
engender." 

Among the distinguished literary names con- 
nected with the Temple, may be mentioned the 
following : Raleigh, Selden (who died in White- 
friars), Clarendon, Beaumont, Ford, Wycherly, 
Congreve, Rowe, Fielding, Johnson, Burke, and 
Cowper : also Goldsmith, who had chambers 
there. He resided first on Library-Staircase, 
afterwards in King's Bench AYalk, and finally at 
No. 2 Brick Court. It was in Wine Office Court, 
Fleet-street, he wrote his " Yicar of Wakefield." 
The following is the interesting account by Bos- 
well, of the circumstances under which this charm- 
ing tale was sold : 

"I received one morning," said Johnson, "a message from 
p or Goldsmith, that he was in great distress, and, as it was 



140 

not in his power to come to me, begging that I would come 
to him as soon as possible. I sent him a guinea,. and promised 
to come to him directly. I accordingly went to him as soon as 
I was dressed, and found that his landlady had arrested him for 
his rent, at which he was in a violent passion. I perceived that 
he had already changed my guinea, and had a bottle of Madeira 
and a glass before him. I put the cork into the bottle, desired 
he would be calni, and began to talk to him of the means by 
which he might be extricated. He then told me that he 
had a novel ready for the press, which he produced to me. 1 
looked into it, and saw its merit; told the landlady T should 
soon return, and having gone to a bookseller, sold it for sixty 
pounds. I brought Goldsmith the money, and he discharged 
his rent, not without rating his landlady in a high tone for 
having used him so ill." 

Those who are familiar with Boswell's " Life of 
Johnson" will remember the following amusing 
anecdote of the Doctor : " When Madame de Bouf- 
flers was first in England, she was desirous to see 
Johnson. I accordingly went with her to his cham- 
bers in the Temple, where she was entertained with 
his conversation for some time. When our visit 
was over, she and 1 left him, and were got into 
Inner Temple Lane, when all at once I heard a 
noise like thunder. This was occasioned by John- 
son, who, it seems, upon a little recollection, had 
taken it into his head that he ouofht to have done 
the honors of his literary residence to a foreign lady 
of quality, and eager to show himself a man of 
gallantry, was hun-ying down the staircase in 



141 

violent agitation. He overtook us before we reach- 
ed the Temple Gate, and breaking in between me 
and Madame de Boufflers, seized her hand, and 
conducted her to her coach. His dress was a rusty 
brown morning suit, a pair of old shoes bj way of 
slippers, a little shrivelled wig sticking on the top 
of his head, and the sleeves of his shirt and the 
knees of his breeches hanging loose. A consider- 
able crowd of people gathered round, and were not 
a little struck by this singular appearance." 

St. Dun Stan's Church, Fleet-street, was founded 
about the middle of the fourteenth century. The 
present structure is exceedingly beautiful, being of 
the Gothic style. Among our early recollections we 
recall two huge, fierce-looking figures placed in the 
old tower, each side the clock, with clubs in their 
hands, with which to strike the hour. An ancient 
statue of Queen Elizabeth, was also a conspicuous 
object on the exterior of the church. It will be re- 
collected that Dr. Johnson died in Bolt Court, Fleet- 
street, a little lower down. Ferguson, the astro- 
nomer, lived at No. 4 in this Court, and there he 
died. 

St. Bride's Church, in Fleet-street, is celebrated 
for its architectural beauty, as well as the interest- 
ing memories it recalls of the past. Here repose 
the ashes of "Wynkyn De Worde, the contemporary 



142 

of Caxton ; Kichardson, the novelist; and several 
literary characters of the past century — Sir Richard 
Baker, author of the Chronicle which bears his 
name ; also Richard Lovelace, the poet. In this 
church were buried, Ogilby, the translator of Ho- 
mer ; Sandford, author of the Genealogical History 
which bears his name ; the widow of Sir William 
Davenant, the poet; and Richardson, author of 
Clarissa Harlowe, his grave (half hid by pew 'No, 
8, on the south side) is marked by a flat stone, 
about the middle of the centre aisle. 

St. Bride's is of very ancient foundation. The 
present structure is the work of Sir Christopher 
"Wren. It was when Milton lived in St. Bride's 
churchyard that he contracted the ill-assorted mar- 
riage with Mary Powell. 

In a house, near the centre of Salisbury Square, 
Richardson wrote his " Pamela." It was here he 
was visited by most of the eminent men of his day, 
Hogarth, Johnson, Archbishop Seeker, Dr. Young, 
Mrs. Barbauld, and others. The last named has 
presented a graphic picture of these memorable li- 
terary gatherings. Underneath the church wall of 
St. Bride's is a pump, which is said to cover the 
site of the ancient St. Bride's Well. Bridewell, 
named originally from the same spring, was for- 
merly a royal palace. It was built prior to the 



143 

reign of King John, and formed part of an ancient 
castle. It was inhabited by Cardinal Wolsey ; 
Henry YIII. also lodged here, when his inhuma- 
nity aftd infidelity to Catherine first betrayed itself. 
In the time of the great Lord Bui'leigh it was con- 
verted into a House of Correction for vagrants. It 
was here a notorious procuress, of the days of 
Charles II., closed her career. She desired by will 
to have a sermon preached at her funeral, for which 
the preacher was to have ten pounds — but upon the 
express condition that he was to say nothing but 
what was well of her. Clerical ingenuity closed 
the funeral oration in the following words : — '' All 
I shall say of her, therefore, is this : she was born 
well^ she lived well^ and she died well / for she 
was born with the name Cresi^^ZZ, she lived in Cler- 
'k&n.well^ and she died in Bridet(?<?ZZ." 

In the days of the Plantagenets, when the sove- 
reigns of England held their courts indiscriminate- 
ly in the palaces of Bridewell, Westminster, and 
the Tower, the banks of the Thames between the 
latter fortress and the Temple appear to have been 
occupied by the splendid mansions and gardens of 
the nobility. Immediately to the east of Black- 
friars '-Bridge, stood the great monastery of the 
Black-Friars, which, with its gardens and precincts, 
covered a vast space of ground ; had its four gates 



144 

and its sanctuary ; and could also boast of one of 
the most magnificent churches in the metropolis. 
During the reign of Henry YIII., Parliament con- 
vened in this monastery ; and it was hefe the 
charges were preferred against Wolsey. The bu- 
rial-ground of this monastery received the remains 
of many distinguished personages of that time — the 
privilege of being interred in the habit of their 
order having been supposed to be a certain safe- 
guard against the power of the evil spirit. This 
monastery shared the fate of other religious houses 
in 1547. It was near here that the unfortunate 
Lord Cobhani resided, at whose house Queen Eli- 
zabeth was once entertained. It was on the occa- 
sion of tlie festival in honor of the marriage of Lord 
Herbert, when the wrinkled Queen, at sixty-three, 
figured in the gay frivolities of the girl of eighteen. 
This entertainment took place but a few months 
previous to her signing the death-warrant of the ill- 
fated Earl of Essex. 

Crossing Fleet-street is Farringdon-street, which 
leads to Holborn (originally called Old Bourne, 
from the stream which in early times connected 
itself with the Thames). In 1606, Fleet River 
was navigable by vessels as far as Holborn. 

Playhouse-Yard, in the vicinity, is the site of 
Blackfriars' Theatre, where Shakespeare enacted 



145 

some of his characters. In the immediate neigh- 
borhood is Printinghonse Square, in which is the 
well-known establishment of tlie Times newspaper. 
Continuing the route along Thames-street, the 
next object of special interest that we meet with 
on the northern banks of the river, is Bajnard 
Castle. It is situated between PaulVWharf and 
Puddle-Dock, near the site of old St. Paul's. Bay- 
nard Castle — endeared to us by the genius of Shak- 
speare — is associated with some of the most stirring 
scenes in English history. It derives its name from 
its founder, one of the Norman barons, who accom- 
panied William the Conqueror to England. The 
castle was destroyed in 1428, and rebuilt by Hum- 
phrey, Duke of Gloucester, on whose attainder it 
reverted to the crown. Its next occupant was 
Richard Plan tage net, Duke of York, who main- 
tained four hundred followers within its walls, and 
who carried on here his ambitious projects against 
the government of Henry YL In 1460 young Ed- 
ward lY. made it his abode for a time ; and after 
his accession to the throne, he conferred it upon 
the Duke of Gloucester. Henry YII. frequently 
resided in Baynard Castle, and added to its extent 
and decorations. The Earl of Pembroke was an- 
other of its occupants, and it was here he entertain- 
ed Queen Elizabeth shortly after her coronation. 



14 6 

Baynard Castle was destroyed in the Great Fire ; 
its name, however, is still preserved in Baynard 
Castle Ward. 

Blackfriars'-Bridge, commenced in 1760, is 
memorable as having been one of the principal 
scenes of the famous Protestant outbreak fomented 
by Lord George Gordon. For three days the po- 
pulace were masters of the metropolis ; the conflict 
on the bridge was terrific and disastrous, and the 
causeway was actually dyed with blood. 




The visitor to the City will hardly fail to cross 
this central bridge, since it leads to many objects 
of .interest which lie between Blackfriars' and 
Southwark bridges. 

The view of the Citv from Blackfriars'-Bridofe 



147 

is very imposing ; it is liere we see the majestic 
dome of St. Paul's towering high above the almost 
countless pinnacles and spires of churches, and as 
far as the eye can reach, the mass of brick and 
stone buildings which line the banks of the 
Thames. 

" It is by the Thames," says Sir Henry L. Bul- 
wer, " that the foreigner should enter London. The 
broad breast of this great river, black with the 
huge masses that float upon its crowded waters, — 
the tall fabrics, gaunt and drear, that line its me- 
lancholy shores,— the thick gloom through which 
you dimly catch the shadowy outline of these gi- 
gantic forms — the marvellous quiet with which you 
glide by the dark phantoms of her power into the 
mart of nations — the sadness, the silence, the vast- 
ness, the obscurity of all things around — prepare 
you for a grave and solemn magnificence." 

There are upwards of sixty steamers plying 
daily on the river Thames. It is computed that 
they pass under the bridges at the rate of one per 
minute during the entire day. 

Passing up Ludgate Hill, and turning north- 
ward, we reach the Old Bailey, the terrible site of 
public executions. "We shall not pause to refer to 
its dark records, for while many have been" justly 
doomed to expiate their crimes, we cannot forget 



148 

that it has witnessed the sacrifice of many valuable 
lives. For nearly two centuries this prison was 
the scene of the infliction of fearful cruelties, as 
well as the administration of justice. The prison 
itself is called Newgate. The worthy William 
Penn was once incarcerated within its walls, for 
preaching against the Established Church. 

But since those days a great amelioration has 
taken place, not only in the repeal of many barba- 
rous laws that disgraced the English Statute-book, 
but also in the condition of such criminals as have 
made themselves amenable to the present milder 
code — a consummation that has been brought 
about, not alone by a more humane spirit in the 
Legislature, but also through the benevolent efforts 
of individuals, the first and most prominent of whom 
was the immortal Howard, who has earned the 
surname of " the great philanthropist," and whose 
conduct has been worthily imitated in our own 
day by the well-known Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, Mr. 
Gurney, and several others. 

At Ko. 12 Green Arbor Court, Old Bailey, 
lived Oliver Goldsmith. In an apartment here, 
he is said to have written some of his produc- 
tions, and the poem of "The Traveller." The 
antiquary, Camden, was born in the Old Bailey. 

The very house is still standing, the last in the 



14 9 

alley, facing a flight of steps, facetiously perhaps, 
but very appropriately, called '' Breakneck Stairs." 
Dirty as is this shrine of genius, we cannot with- 
hold our tribute to the memory of one of the classic 
names of the world's literature. At the end of the 
Old Bailey stands St. Sepulchre's Church, which 
is worthy of note as containing the remains of the 
heroic Capt. John Smith, who died 1631. 

Sydney House, in the Old Bailey, once the re- 
sidence of the Sydneys, till they removed to Lei- 
cester Fields, was subsequently shorn of its dignity 
by becoming the abode of the notorious Jonathan 
Wild. 

Returning to Ludgate Hill, we next approach 
Stationers' Hall Court, near which are the business 
premises of Mr. Charles Knight, the celebrated 
author and publisher. Stationers' Hall is the old 
establishment of the Booksellers' and Stationers' 
Company, incorporated in' 1757. It is here all co- 
pyright publications are registered and deposited. 
Facing this building is Simpkin and Marshall's ex- 
tensive book-warehouse. Passing this we reach 
Amen-Corner, which forms the terminus of Pater- 
noster-row, the world's great literary emporium. 

Paternoster-row is said to have been so called 
on account of the number of Stationers or Text- 
writers who dwelt there, and dealt much in reli- 



15 

gious books, and sold horn-books, with the Pater- 
noster, Ave-Maria, Creed, etc. Cunningham, how- 
ever, supposes it was named from the rosary or 
paternoster-makers ; for so they were called, as 
appears bj a record of " one Eobert Nikke, a 
paternoster-maker and citizen," in the reign of 
Eenry lY. 

The "Row," as it is technically called by the 
Craft, did not assume any importance till the reign 
of Queen Anne, when the booksellers began to for- 
sake their former principal mart. Little Britain; and 
which may be said to have become the resort of all 
the bibliopoles about the time of the renowned John 
Day, terminating with the equally celebrated Bal- 
lard (themselves both authors and booksellers); 
during which period, those of our category appear 
to have been singularly conspicuous. In earlier 
times Paternoster-row seems to have been more 
noted for mercers, lacemen and haberdashers, and 
a newspaper periodical of 1707 adds to the list, 
" the sempstresses of Paternoster-row." We find, 
however, the record of a solitary member of the 
craft, one Denham, who lived then at the sign of 
the " Star," as early as 1504, and whose significant 
■ >tto ran as follows : 

"Os homini sublime dedit." 

The bookselling brotliei-hood of Paternoster-row 



151 

number about one hundred; they enjoy amongst 
themselves a kind of freemasonry, and impose laws 
and restrictions on the minor members of the 
trade. 

The Chapter Coffee House, in Paternoster-row, 
has long been, and still is, the place where the 
bookselling fraternity " do chiefly congregate." 

It is here they hold council on matters of busi- 
ness among themselves or with authors. Kiving- 
tons is the senior publishing house ; near where 
Dolly's chop-house now stands, once lived Tarlton, 
Queen Elizabeth's celebrated jester. Rivingtons' 
house has been established more than a century, and 
is devoted to the publication of " High Church " 
theological literature. Longmans' is the next oldest 
establishment, and the one that does the heaviest 
business in the trade. One of Longmans' earliest 
publications, "Drysdale's Warwickshire," folio, 
bears the imprint 1730. 

In Lovell's Court, now forming part of the pre- 
mises of the Rivingtons, Richardson wrote his "Sir 
Charles Grandison." Over Rivington's door may still 
be seen the old sign of " The Bible and Crown." 

On the opposite side of the Row is Panyer-alley, 
which takes its name from a stone monument erect- 
ed therein, on which is inscribed the figure of a 
pannier, across which a boy is seated, with a bunch 



.M 1°^ 

of grapes lield between liis hand and foot, beneatli 
which is a tablet with the following : 

" When you have sought y" citie round, 

Yet still this is the highest grounde. 

August the 27, 1688." 

Warwick-lane, w^hich is a little lower down, 
takes its name from the ancient Earls of Warwick, 
who dwelt here. 

At [N^ewgate-street end may be seen a stone 
tablet, referring to the famous Earl of Warwick, 
who, according to Stowe, came to London at the 
famous convention of 1458, "with six Inmdred men 
all dressed in red jackets, embroidered with ragged 
staves, before and behind, and was lodged in War- 
wick-lane; in whose house there were often six 
oxen eaten at a breakfast, and every .tavern was 
full of his meat ; for he that had any acquaintance 
in that house, might have there so much of sodden 
and roast meat as he could prick and carry upon a 
long daggei".'' 

The butchers of Newgate Market, leading from 
Warwick-lane, who are thickly colonized there, — 
to the great discomfort of the neighboring pur- 
veyors of intellectual meat, the booksellers — may 
possibly have chosen this location for the purpose 
of doing honor to the memory of the redoubtable 
Earl and his iyormandizino- armv. 



158 

At the corner of St, Paul's Churchyard lived 
Mr. Is'ewberrj, the famous bookseller to the Juve- 
niles. The house is now occupied by a successor, 
who caters to their fancy with a greater display 
than his renowned predecessor. 
7* 



1 5 4 



a II A V T K K. VIII. 

Johnson the Bookseller — ^^t. Paul's Cathedral — Its Interior — Mtmumenta — 
Anecdote of Dr, Donne — View from the Summit of St. Paul's — Anniver- 
sary of the Charity Children in St. Paul's — St. Paul's Churchyard — 
Doctors' Commons — Heialds' College — St Paul's School, Cheapside — 
Bread-strei't — Guildhall — The Poultry — Old Jewry — The Mansion House 
— Bank of England — St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook — Lombard-street 
—St. Mary's, Woolnoth — St. Olave's Church— St. Mary's, Aldermanbury 
— St. Magnus' — St. Augustine's — The Royal Exchange — Lloyds' -The 
North and South American Coffee House — Garraway's Coflee House 
—Pope's Head Alley — St. Peter's, Cornhill — South Sea House— Aldgnte 
— East India House. 




EFORE we take leave of the book- 
Wlsellers, we might mention that at 
No. 72 St. Paul's Churchyard, lived 
Johnson, the publisher of Cowper's 
"Task." It may be remembered that not- 
withstanding it was almost nniversally de- 
nounced by the literary censorship of the day, 
yet, such was the superior critical acumen of 
worthy bibliopolist, that he had the courage to this 
publish the subsequent poems of Cowper, and the 
satisfaction of sustaining his own and reversing 
public opinion in their favor. 

St. Paul's Cathedral — the most magnificent 
religious edifice of the City — occupies classic 
ground. On its site once stood a heathen temple ; 



155 

a Christian Church was founded A. D. 610, by 
Ethelbert ; and after this, the old cathedral which 
was destroyed in the Great Fire. 

Old St. Paul's abounded with historical associa- 
tions, and contained the ashes of many illustrious 
personages. Paul's Cross, which stood in front 
of the western porch, was raeinorable as being the 
place at which royal marriages wxre announced ; 
and among the number that of Henry YII. It 
was at Paul's Cross that the illustrious martyrs, 
Latimer and Pidley, were accustomed to deliver 
their powerful appeals in behalf of the reformed 
religion. In 1588, Queen Elizabeth, it will be 
remembered, went in state to the Cathedral to re- 
turn thanks for the destruction of the " Invincible 
Armada." The last time that a sermon was 
preached at Paul's Cross in the presence of royalty, 
was in 1630, before Charles the First. In 1643, the 
Long Parliament voted the destruction of the dif- 
ferent crosses in London, as being offensive relics 
of Popery. The same year, during the civil wars, 
the Cathedral was doomed to havoc and desecra- 
tion, and during the Great Fire, it was w^holly sa- 
crificed by the devouring element. The present 
magnificent structure was commenced in 1675, and 
completed in 1710 ; the grandest monument of 
architectural skill ever achieved by a single indi- 




ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL. 



i: 



Oi 



vidual. It occupied thirty-liv^e years in building, 
under the supei-iritendence of Sir Christopher 
Wren ; while St. Peter's, at Rome, took one hun- 
dred and fiftj-iive years in its construction, under 
the supervision of twelve successive architects. 
St. Paul's is more symmetrically beautiful than St. 
Peter's ; its cost was close upon £750,000. Its 
dimensions are 404 feet in height, 500 in length, 
and 250 at its extreme breadth. St. Peter's is 437 
feet in height, 730 feet long, and 500 broad. Wren 
received only £200 a year during the progress of 
this great work ; for which he incurred the great 
responsibility of the undertaking, as well as the 
hazard of his life in being hauled up in baskets 
scores of times, even to the top of the cupola and 
cross. While Wren was adjusting the dimensions 
of the dome, he ordered a laborer to bring him a 
flat stone to be laid as a direction to the masons. 
The man brought by chance a fragment of a grave- 
stone on which the word Resurgam was inscribed. 
This suggested to Sir Christopher the idea of the 
phoenix, which he placed on the south portico with 
that word cut beneath. In the centre of the Cathe- 
dral, immediately under the great dome, is an in- 
scription in brass over the remains of the great 
architect, which reads as follows : — 

" Si monumentum requiris eircumspice." 



The interior of tin's vast editice is in the form of 
a Latin cross, having a nave, choir, transepts, and 
side aisles. 

Tlie choir is separated from the body of the 
Church by iron railings. Over the entrance to it 
is the organ gallery, and an organ erected in 1694, 
by Bernard Schmydt, or Smith, at a cost of £2000, 
and supposed to be one of tlie first in the kingdom. 
On the south side of the choir is a throne for the 
bishop, and on the north side another for the lord 
mayor ; besides those there is on each side a long 
range of stalls. The whole are richly ornamented 
with carvings, by Grinley Gibbons, who was the 
first, according to Walpole, who succeeded in 
giving to wood " the loose and airy lightness of 
fiowers ; and chained together the various produc- 
tions of the elements with a free disorder natural 
to each species." In the chancel, or semicircular 
recess, at the east end, stands the communion table. 

The lofty columns which support the immense 
dome, are clustered with sculptured monuments of 
names distinguished in British history. The rest- 
ing place of Nelson is probably that which excites 
the deepest interest ; it is in tlie crypt of the Ca- 
thedral. There is a gallery round the interior cf 
the dome known as " The Whispering Gallery," 
where, by whispering against the wall, a person at 



the opposite extremity can hear what yon say, as 
distinctly as if yon spoke in a lond voice. The 
slamming of a door in that gallery reverberates 
like thunder. 

Some fair specimens of the sculptor's art beautify 
the interior of the Cathedral ; we can only indicate 
a few, — the statue of Howard the philanthropist, 
and that of Johnson, both by Bacon. Also of Sir 
AVilliam Jones ; Sir John Moore ; Lords Howe, 
Cornwallis, Eodney, etc. 

But the passenger through St. Paul's Church- 
yard has not only the last home of Nelson and 
others to venerate, but in the ground of the old 
church were buried the gallant Sir Philip Sydney 
(the heau ideal of the age of Elizabeth), and Van- 
dyke, who immortalised the youth and beauty of 
the court of Charles I. One of Elizabeth's great 
statesmen also lies there — ^Walsingham, — who died 
so poor, that he was buried by stealth, to prevent 
his body from being arrested ; another. Sir Chris- 
topher Hatton, who is supposed to have danced 
himself into the office of Her Majesty's Chancellor ; 
Fletcher, Bishop of London, father of the great 
poet, was another who had a tomb in the old 
Church. Dr. Donne, the head of the metaphysical 
poets, so ably criticised by Johnson, was Dean of 
St. Paul's, and had a grave here, of which he has 



160 

left an extraordinary memorial. It is a wooden 
image of himself, made by his order, and repre- 
senting him as he was to appear in his shroud. 
This, for some time before he died, he kept by his 
bed-side, in an open coffin, thus endeavoring to 
reconcile an uneasy imagination to the fate he 
could not avoid. It is still preserved in the vaults 
under the church, and is to be seen with the other 
curiosities of the Cathedral. 

On a clear day, which is somewhat a rarity in 
the smoky Metropolis, one of the most magnificent 
sights the eye can behold or the mind contemplate, 
is afibrded from the summit of St. Paul's. It is 
somewhat of an undertaking, it is true, to make 
one's way up some six or seven hundred steps to 
the top, but once having gained it, the labor is 
more than repaid. This we can avouch from repeat- 
ed experience ; and so sublime a spectacle was it 
deemed by Haydon, that he perilled his life during 
a series of months in sketching from a scaffolding 
erected over the cross, the panorama from which 
he painted his celebrated picture of London. 

The most interesting time to witness St. Paul's 
Cathedral, is on the anniversary celebration of 
the Parochial Schools of London in May, when 
some fifteen thousand children, the members of each 
school being dressed alike, are congregated within 



161 

this vast temple. Divine service is performed 
twice a day, in a comparatively small enclosm'e, 




being the eastern aisle. Tliere is a harrier dividing 
St. Paul's Churchyard north and south ; it was 
formerly called "Paul's Chain." In Knight- 
Kiders'-street is situated Doctors' Commons, a sort 
of college of civil and ecclesiastical law. All 



it) 2 

wills are deposited here, and are registered from 
the year 1333. 

Here is the original will of Shakespeare, on 
three folio sheets of paper, with his signature to 
each sheet ; the will of Napoleon, made at St. 
Helena, bequeathing a legacy of 10,000 francs to 
the man who tried to assassinate the Duke of 
Wellington in Paris ; the will of Yan Dyck, the 
painter ; of Inigo Jones ; Sir Isaac Newton ; Dr. 
Johnson ; and, in short, of all the great men in 
this country who died possessed of property in the 
south of England. 

In the immediate neighborhood is the Heralds' 
College. It is approached under an arched gate- 
way which conducts to the quadrangular building. 
A gorgeous display of colors falls on the eye in 
passing it, as from a Cathedral window, — 

" And shielded scutcheons blush 
With blood of Kings and Queens." 

The corporation is of great antiquity. It con- 
sists of three kings-at-arms, six heralds-at-arms, 
and four pursuivants-at-arms, all nominated by the 
Earl Marshal of England. These mock kings 
were formerly created and crowned by the king 
himself, but that ceremony is now performed by 
the Duke of Norfolk, as hereditary Earl Marshal 
of England, or his deputy. 



168 

Among its curiosities are the sword, dagger, 
and ring belonging to James TV. of Scotland, who 
fell at Flodden-field, and the Roll of the Tourna- 
ment hold en at Westminster by Henry YIII., in 
honor of Queen Katherine. 

Passing by St. Paul's School, w^hich was found- 
ed in 1512, by Dean Colet, the friend of Erasmus, 
we enter Cheapside, or Westcheap, as it was for- 
merly called ; it is one of the most frequented 
thoroughfares in London, was famous in former 
times for its " Ridings," its " Cross," its " Con- 
duit," and its " Standard," and, still later, for its 
silk-mercers, linen-drapers, and hosiers. At Ko. 
73, lived Sir Christopher Wren, in a splendid 
stone edifice, since restored and recently occupied 
by Tegg, the well-known bookseller, who amassed a 
fortune by the purchase and sale of " remainders " 
of works of the several publishers. In Bread- 
street, Sir Thomas More was born, and on the op- 
posite side Milton. Here also stood the famous 
Mermaid Tavern, the celebrated rendezvous of 
Raleigh, Spencer, Shakespeare, Selden, Ben Jon- 
son, Donne, etc. 

- Guildhall abounds with historical interest. It 
w^as here the fair martyr, Anna Askew, was 
brought to trial, also the beautiful and accomplished 
Lady Jane Gray, the Earl of Surrey, et?. Guild- 



164 

hall has also been famous tor centuries, for its civic 
feasts, at many of which royalty presided. On 
the occasion of the peace, in 1814, the city gave a 
magnificent banquet, at which the Prince Regent, 
the Emperor of Eussia, and other potentates were 
guests; the total expenditure of which was esti- 
mated at the enormous sum of £24,000. The 
plate alone is stated to have been worth £200,000. 
The great civic festival — the " Lord Mayor's 
Show," — which occurs on the 9th of November, 
concludes with a sumptuous entertainment at 
Guildhall. John Bull still retains the enviable 
reputation of giving good dinners ; a faculty he 
seems to have acquired from his ancestors. Opposite 
Guildhall is Bow Church, the well-known centre of 
cockney ism. 

The Poultry — so called from its having in for- 
mer times been principally tenanted by poulterers — 
extending from Cheapside to Cornhill, was the 
locale of Dilly, the bookseller, who subsequently 
sold his business to Mawman ; his shop was Ko. 
22. Tliere Johnson dined with Jack Wilkes, and 
here Boswell's "Life of Johnson" was first publish- 
ed. jSTo. 31, was Yennor and Hood's, the book- 
sellers — Tom Hood, the punster and poet, was 
born here, the head of the firm being his fi\ther. 

Old Jewry, connecting Cheaj^side with Cateaton- 



165 

street, was first so called iVoni its being chietly in- 
habited by Jews. Here was originally held the 
London Institution, and here its ^Librarian, Prof. 
Parson, died, in 1808. Dr. Foster, a celebrated 
preacher upwards of twenty years in the Old 
Jewry, and the friend of Lord Chancellor 
Hardwicke, is referred to by Pope in the follow- 
ing couplet: — 

" Let modest Foster, if he will excel 
Two Metropolitans in preaching well." 

According to tradition, in the corner house of 
Old Jewry and Cheapside, Thomas a-Becket was 
born. In St. Lawrence Church, adjacent, is a 
monument to the memory of the amiable and dis- 
tinguished Tillotson, many of whose admirable 
sermons were delivered here. The Arch- 
bishop was both married and buried in this 
Church. 

The Mansion House, the official residence of 
the Lord Mayor, is said to have cost upwards of 
£70,000. The state-carriage of the Lord Mayor, 
second only in splendor to the Queen's, originally 
cost about a thousand guineas, and requires about 
£100 a year to keep it in repair. The annual salary 
of the Lord Mayor is £8000, and his expenses usually 
exceed that amount. The Mansion House, built 
about 100 years ago, has been frequently beautified, 



166 

and is, as a whole, a very grand and imposing 
structure. Some years ago, the writer of these 
"" Memories" wa^ at a grand civic banquet in the 
" Egyptian Hall," on which occasion the celebrated 
Talleyrand was a guest. He was paraded round 
the Hall, heralded by trumpeters gaudily dressed in 
gold-lace coats. 

Facing the Mansion House is the renowned 
Bank of England. It is an enormous mass of 
buildings, occupying eight acres of ground. This 
mighty magazine of money — the largest banking 
establishment by far in the world — w^as originated 
in 1694. More than, eight hundred clerks are oc- 
cupied in the various departments, besides forty 
or fifty engravers, printers, &c. ; and some two 
hundred pensioners and superannuated clerks de- 
rive annuities from the Bank. On the 14th of 
May, 1832, it is recorded that the twenty-five 
tellers paid, within the limits of banking hours, no 
less a sum than £307,000 in gold ! The Bank is 
allowed only to issue paper to the amount of four- 
teen millions sterling. The great event in its 
history occurred in 1797, when it suspended cash 
payments, yet then, after all claims had been de- 
ducted, fifteen and a half millions sterling remain- 
ed over in the vaults. 

In the Bank of England no fewer than sixty 



16 7 

folio volumes, or ledgers, are daily filled with 
writing in keeping the accounts ! To produce 
these sixty folio volumes, the paper having been 
previously manufactured elsewhere, eight men, 
three steam-presses, and two hand-presses are con- 
tinually kept going within the Bank ! In the cop- 
per-plate printing department, 28,000 bank-notes 
are thrown off daily ; and so accurately is the 
number indicated by machinery, that to purloin 
a single note without detection is an impossibility. 

St. Stephen's Church, Wal brook, is one of the 
boasted edifices of the distinguished architect, 
"Wren. It is admitted to be one of the most 
beautifully proportioned buildings ever constructed. 
A nobleman, celebrated for his artistic and archi- 
tectural taste, (the Earl of Burlington,) on return- 
ing from a tour in Italy some years ago, paid a 
visit to St. Stephen's, and pronounced it equal to 
anything of its kind in the world. 

There is a fine painting by Benjamin "West, of 
the Stoning of St. Stephen, at the church of St. 
Mary Woolnoth, Lombard-street. John l^ewton, 
the friend of Cowper, was for twenty-eight years 
rector. He died 1807, and a tablet to his memory 
is placed within the church, with the following in- 
scription : 

" John Ne\^ ^on, Clerk, once an infidel and a libertine, a 



16 8 

aervant of slaves in AtVicji, was by the rich mercy of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned and 
appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy." 

In Lombard-street, Guy, the bookseller, and 
founder of Guy's Hospital, lived. The father of 
Pope, the poet, was a linendraper in this street ; 
and here, in 1688, his celebrated son was born. 
Opposite the old-fashioned gate of the church of 
St. Edward the Martyr, is a narrow court leading 
to a Quaker's Meeting-House, where Penn and 
Fox frequently preached. 

Lombard-street derives its name from the opu- 
lent money-lenders, or usurers, who came out 
of Lombardy in 1274, and who carried on their 
monetary transactions in this street, from the reign 
of Edward L to that of Elizabeth. It still retains 
its reputation for wealth ; with the exception of the 
Bank of England, it contains unquestionably the 
most money, and includes within its limits the 
richest capitalists and bankers, in the world. Sir 
Thomas Gresh am, the princely merchant, and foun- 
der of the Eoyal Exchange, lived here ; the site, 
'No. 68, is now occupied by a banking establish- 
ment. 

St. Mary's Aldermanbury, was built by Sir C. 
Wren. lieminge and Condell, the first editors of 
Shakespeare ; and Edmund Calamy are buried 



1 (5 9 

bere. Judge Jeffreys, who died in 168^, was 
buried in a vault on the north side of the com- 
munion table. In 1810, when the church was 
repaired, the coffin was found still fresh with the 
name of " Lord Chancellor Jeffreys " inscribed 
upon it. The register of the church of 1656 
records the marriage of Milton to his second 
wife. 

Close to Fish-street Hill is the Church of St. 
Magnus the Martyr, standing on the site of the old 
church, which was destroyed by the Great Fire in 
1666. The most illlustrions name connected with 
this church is that of Miles Coverdale, under 
whose direction the first complete English version 
of the Bible was j)ublished, in 1535. He resigned 
the rectorship in 1566. In White-II art-Court, 
died, in 1690, the celebrated George Fox, the 
father of the Quakers. 

In St. Augustine's, Watling-street, are the re- 
mains of the Rev. R. M. Barham, the rector, and 
author of the " Ingoldsby Legends." He died in 
1845. 

In Coleman-street, in the City, at a tavern 
called the " Star," Oliver Cromwell and his party 
used to convene. Here also the five members 
accused of treason by Charles I., concealed them- 
selves. At No. 14, Great-Bell-Yard, Coleman- 



170 

street, Robert Bloomfield, the poet, carried on the 
trade of a shoe-maker. 

*• WhWe fields shall bloom, 
His name shall live," 

for, if he did not render illustrious the (faft of St. 
Crispin, he certainly portrayed pastoral scenes 
with all their native attractions. 

"We have now approached the Royal Exchange 
— an ornament of the British Metropolis, and 
one of the most splendid modem structures in 
the world. The munificent Sir Thomas Gresham 
built the first Exchange that London ever had ; 
the foundation stone was laid in 1566, and the 
grand edifice was completed during the following 
year. Queen Elizabeth proceeded in great state 
from her residence, Somerset-House, in the Strand, 
to visit the " new Bourse," as it was then styled. 
She was attended by many of the nobility on the 
occasion, ind a sumptuous entertainment was fur- 
nished to the illustrious guests by Sir Thomas 
Greshan ^ at his house in Bishopsgate-street. 
Queen Elizabeth had its name changed to " Royal 
Exchange." Defoe, the author of " Robinson 
Crusoe," lived many years at the east end of the 
Exchange. The present Royal Exchange was 
built after the designs of William Tite, and was 
opened by Queen Yictoria, in 1844. Its cost is 




THE KOTAL EXCHANGE. 



1 7 2 

stated at £150,000. The Underwriters establish- 
ment, Lloyd's, occupies the east end, and contains 
magnificent apartments. 

Gray, the poet, was born December 26, 1716, in 
a house on the site of No. 41 Cornhill. The origi- 
nal house was destroyed by fire, March 25th, 1748, 
and immediately rebuilt by Gray. 

'No American tourist will fail to visit the l^orth 
and South American Cofiee House, in Thread- 
needle-street, facing the southern entrance to the 
Koyal Exchange. This is the great focus of intel- 
ligence concerning American aifairs. 

In 'Change-alley is Garraway's Cofiee House, 
which is so widely known for its connection with 
monetary affairs. D'Israeli thus refers to its origina- 
tor : — " Thomas Garway, in Exchange-alley, to- 
bacconist and cofi*ee-man, was the first who sold 
and retailed tea, recommending it for the cure of 
all disorders. The following shop-bill is more 
curious than any historical account we have : — 
'Tea in England hath been sold in the leaf for £6 
and sometimes for £10 the pound weight, and in 
respect of its former scarceness and dearness, it 
hath only been used as a regalia in high treatments 
and entertainments, and presents made thereof to 
princes and grandees till the year 1357. The said 
Thomas Garway did purchase a quantity thereof. 



] 7 r, 

and first publicly sold the said tea in leaf, and 
drink made according to the directions of the most 
knowing merchants and travellers into the Eastern 
countries, and upon knowledge and experience of 
the said Garway's continued care and industry in 
obtaining the best tea, and making tea thereof, 
very many noblemen, physicians, merchants, and 
gentlemen of quality have ever sent to him for the 
said leaf, and daily resort to his house in Exchange- 
alley aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof; and to 
the end that all persons of eminence and quality, 
gentlemen, and others, who have occasion for tea 
in leaf may be supplied, these are to give notice, 
that the said Thomas Garway hath tea to sell from 
sixteen to fifty shillings the pound.' " 

Near the junction of Lcadenhall-street and Corn- 
hill, stood one of the most ancient taverns in Lon- 
don ; it was called "The Pope's Head." It is 
stated, that in the reign of Henry the Sixth, wine 
was sold at one penny the pint, and bread included. 
It stood in what is now called Pope's Head-alley. 
On the south side of Cornhill, stands a church 
dedicated to St. Peter — remarkable for being the 
oldest in England. According to an inscription on 
a brass j^late still j^reserved in the vestry, it was 
founded as early as the year of our Lord, 179. "We 
ought to mention that little of the original building 



174 

now remains, it having been partly destroyed by 
the fire of 1666. One revered name at least is as- 
sociated with this religions edifice : we refer to 
that of the excellent Dr. Beveridge, author of " Pri- 
vate Thoughts on Religion," — a work fitted to the 
study of every devout mind. 

In Threadneedle-street is the South-Sea-House 
— celebrated for one of the most iniquitous bubbles 
in the annals of gigantic roguery. In the Church 
of St. Catherine, Leadenhall-street, Dr. Pearson 
first delivered his famous lectures on the Creed : 
he died 1686. Aldgate, or Oldgate, was a gate in 
the City, and near the Church of St. Botolph With- 
out. According to Stow, it was one of the four 
first gates of the City. The old one was taken 
down, and rebuilt in 101 T. This last was again 
taken down in 1761. 

The East India House was founded in the year 
1600, and the ]3resent building was erected in 1800. 
For many years this Company had the exclusive 
trade with China. Its first importation of tea was 
an order limited to one hundred pounds' weight. 
The government of the Company's Indian posses- 
sions is entrusted to a viceroy or governor-general, 
who resides in India. The home affairs of the 
Company are managed by a court of twenty-four 
directors. The collection of Indian idols, paintings 



175 

and curiosities here assembled, render this one of 
the most attractive places of resort in London. 
There are also here a collection of fossils, a very 
rich library of Oriental MSS., and several statues 
of the most eminent servants of the Company. 
Hoole, the translator of Tasso ; Charles Lamb, the 
author of " Elia ;" and James Mills, the historian 
of British India ; were clerks in the East India 
House. " My printed works," said Lamb, " were 
my recreations — my true works may be found on 
the shelves in Leadenhall-street, filling some hun- 
dred folios." It was here on one occasion when 
a complaint was made that he came late to his 
office in the morning, that Lamb wittily replied, " I 
admit it, but I leave early in the afternoon." 



CHAPTER IX. 

London Stonn— Anecdote of Jack Cnde— Cnnnonstrcct^-The Boar's Head— 
tastchcap— London Bridge— Historical Sketch of London Bridge- 
Winchester Palace— St. Saviour's Church— The Ladye Chapel— The 
. Globe Theatre— The Bear Gardens— Barclay and Perkins's Brewery— 
The Tabard— Bermondsey Abbey- Guy's Hospital— The Monument— 
BilliDg-'gatc— St. Michael's Church— Church of St. Mary-at-Hill— The 
Custom House- New Coal Exchange— Tower Hill, its Memories— The 
Tower of London, its History— The Armory— Jewel House— Record 
OflSce- Quccnhithe— Tlie Royal Mint. 



T the junction of Leadenhall-street 
and Aldgate is Fenclmrch-street, 
whicli leads to Cannon-street. Can- 
non-street is a corruption of Candle- 
wick-street, which took its name from being 
formerly the residence of candlemakers. The 
London Stone, which is still to be seen in the 
wall of St. Swithin's Church, is the celebrated 
relic of the Roman London Wall. It is supposed 
to have been a Roman Milliarium^ or point from 
which various distances were measured. It is at 
least venerable for age, fur according to ancient 
chronicles it has existed some fifteen centuries. In 
early times even, it seems to have been invested 
with a degree of sanctity, or religious veneration, 
for treaties were ratified upon it, and proclamationa 
8^ 




178 

issued therefrom. Shakespeare refers to it as such. 
London Stone is one of the ancient shrines at 
which all the veritable and devout antiquaries do 
homage. The noted rebel, Jack Cade, in his pro- 
gress through London, is said to have halted here, 
and striking this stone with his sword, exclaimed, 
" Now is Mortimer lord of this city, and here, sit- 
ting upon London Stone, I charge and command 
that of the City's cost the Priory conduit run no- 
thing but claret wine this first year of our reign, 
and now henceforward it shall be treason for any- 
one to call me other than Lord Mortimer." In old 
St. Swithin's Church, Dryden, the poet, was mar- 
ried to Lady Elizabeth Howard. In the reign of 
Henry YIL, the mansions of the Earls of Oxford 
and Dudley stood in St. SwithinVlane. In New- 
court is the banking establishment of the cele- 
brated Baron Rothschild. At the east end of Can- 
non-street is what remains of Eastcheap, rendered 
memorable by Shakspeare, in his historical drama, 
as the scene of the revels of Henry Y., and that 
portly, facetious knight, Falstaff. Boar's Head 
Tavern, where Shakspeare makes Falstaff and his 
rollicking crew assemble, was destroyed by the 
Great Fire ; it was afterwards rebuilt, and again 
demolished by ruthless hands, to make space for 
the approach to New London Bridge. Johnson 



] 7 9 

was a frequenter there ; Goldsmith wrote in this 
tavern ; and Washington Irving lias an admirable 
paper on it in his " Sketch Book," which latter 
must become the delectation of every pilgrim to 
this classic site. The present statue of William lY. 
now marks the spot of the " Boar's Head," which 
was, in Shakspeare's time, " The Oldest Tavern in 
London." 

We now reach London Bridge, a beautiful 
structure, perhaps the most splendid of the bridges 
of the Metropolis. Like the Tower of London, Old 
London Bridge, of which, however, not a vestige 
now remains, was an object of great historical in- 
terest. Volumes of its history have been w^-itten, 
which is interwoven with the leading events of 
centuries. Its details are rife with the records of 
crime and cruelty, — some of the darkest passages 
in English historj'. The following, however, must 
suflSce for a brief outline of its records: 

In the year 994: there was but a low wooden 
bridge over the Thames ; it was built in a rude 
style, and connected St. Botolph's Wharf with the 
opposite side of the River. The first stone bridge 
was erected about 1209 — occupying thirty-three 
years in construction. It was, however, shortlived, 
for about four years afterwards, according to Stowe, 
it was destroyed by fire, together with the Church 



1 .^ ■■> 

of St. Mary Overy's, and tliree thousand persons. 
In the reign of Edward I. the subsequent bridge 
was disfigured by the lieads of traitors — among 
them that of Sir William Wallace ; and dm'ing the 
reign of Kichard II. feats of chivalry were enacted, 
when the parapet of the bridge was decorated, with 
rich hangings of tapestry and cloth of gold. In 
1450 Jack Cade and his associates had a fierce en- 
counter upon this bridge, and some time afterwards 
his head was exposed here. On the Traitors' Gate, 
in 1655, was placed the liead of the Bishop of Ro- 
chester, who suffered martyrdom for refusing to 
acknowledge Henry YIII. as supreme head of the 
Church of England ; also, a month later, the head 
of Sir Thomas More. His daughter, however, had 
it afterwards buried in the Eoper family vault, in 
a chapel adjoining St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. Old 
London Bridge, that one most celebrated for its 
historic associations, which was covered with houses, 
suffered greatly from the conflagration of 1666. 
The most celebrated edifice that adorned that 
bridge was the " Nonsuch House." These houses, 
according to Pennant, " overhung and leaned in a 
most terrific manner." Two fairs are mentioned as 
having taken place on the Thames, when it was 
frozen over ; one in the time of Charles II., th© 
other in 1814. 



LSI 

Between Baiikside and the south end of London 
Bridge, may jet be seen part of the walls of the 
renowned mansion of the Bishop of Winchester. 
It was originally built in 1107; and in the reign of 
bloody Mary, it was occupied by Bishop Gardiner, 
tlie inhuman persecutor of the Protestants of that 
day. Here Dyer the poet, and friend of Sir Philip 
Sydney, lived and died. Here also the eccentric 
Sir Kenelm Digby wrote while imprisoned by the 
Parliament. One of the most interestinor relicrious 
edifices of London is St. Saviour's Church. . It is 
of very remote antiquity, having been, in early 
times, the Priory of St. Mary Over}^ Previous to 
the Xorman conquest, it was founded by a maiden 
named Mary, the owner of a fei-ry across the 
Thames : its name is derived from the Saxon " over 
the Phe," having been modernised to Overy. The 
edifice has been several times renewed, and once 
or twice rebuilt. It is cathedral-like in form and 
size, and very richly decorated. The most antique 
portion, and the most beautiful also, is the " Ladye 
Chapel " — affording matchless specimens of the 
early English style, as well as the altar screen, with 
its profusion of exquisitely sculptured decorations, 
its graceful, slender pillars, and its beautiful groined 
roof. Besides its architectural beauties, the sacred 
edifice oontnins t.ho r«»lio> of !uanv of tlio illustrious 



182 

dead. Here, in 1397, Gower was married, by "Wil- 
liam of Wykham, to his wife Alice, and here they 
both were buried. The monument of the father of 
English verse is still a conspicuous object. At this 
church were also celebrated the royal nuptials of 
James with the Lady Jane Beaufort : the subse- 
quent fate of the hapless minstrel King of Scotland 
is well known. In the reign of Queen Mary, the 
sanguinary commission for the trial of " heretics" 
was held here ; and among the illustrious person- 
ages, who pleaded their cause before this dreaded 
tribunal were the indomitable Bishop Hooper and 
John Rogers. Both, however, suffered martyrdom, 
one at Gloucester, the other at Smithfield. The 
most striking monument is that to the memory of 
the poet Gower : it is a rich Gothic shrine. Th^ 
monument over the ashes of the amiable Bishop 
Launcelot Andrews is in the Ladye Chapel. The 
dramatist, Massinger, is buried in the Churchyard: 
the quaint inscription reads — 

" 1639 — Philip Massinger, Stranger." 
intimating that he was a non-parishioner. Another 
dramatist, Fletcher, also lies here ; he was the son 
of a bishop, and died of the plague in 1625. There 
are some curious epitaphs to be seen here ; tha fol- 
lowing is inscribed on the monument of Richard 
Humble, his two wives and children : 



1 f^ :) 

" Like to the damjisk rose you see, 
Or like the blossom on the tree, 
Or like the dainty flower of May, 
Or like the morning of the day; 
Or like the sun, or like the shade. 
Or like the gourd which Jonas had ; 
Even so is man, whose thread is spun, 
Drawn out and cut, and so is done ; 
The rose withers, the blossom blasteth, 
The flower fades, the morning hasteth, 
The sun sets, the shadow flies, 
The gourd consumes, and man he dies." 

The Globe Tlieatre, Bankside, was the well- 
known theatre of Shakespeare. It was built in 
159rl:, and was of a hexagonal shape without, and 
open to the weather, except that part of it im- 
mediately above the stage, which was thatched. 
The interior was circular. In 1G13 it was de- 
stroyed by fire. It was subsequently rebuilt " at 
the great charge of King James, and many noble- 
men, and others." The theatre so intimately con- 
nected with Shakespeare and the history of our 
literature was pulled down in 16-I-i. 

Kear the Globe Theatre were the Bear Gardens, 
where Elizabeth and her nobles and ladies used to 
solace their tender sensibilities with the elegant 
pastime of bear-hunting. Two other earlv dra- 
matists, Beaumont and Fletcher, also lived in tln'c 
neighborhood; the mortal remains of Mn 



184 

and Fletcher rest within the time-honored walls of 
St. Saviour's, Southwark. 

The seven large casks at Messrs. Barclays' 
brewery, known as the " Seven Sisters," hold 
each three thousand six hundred barrels, or one 
hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred 
gallons, making in all nine hundred and seven 
thousand two hundred gallons, and these are fre- 
quently emptied in three days ! The mention of 
Barclay and Perkins at once reminds us of the 
demonstration recently made by the brewers of 
malt on the person of the tyrant Haynau, and his 
inglorious retreat. 

Over the gateway of a dilapidated hostelry, on 
the east side of High-street, Southwark, was to be 
seen till within the last twelve or fourteen years, 
the following inscription : " This is the Inne where 
Sir Geoffrey Chaucer, and the nine and twenty pil- 
grims laye, in their journey to Canterbury, anno 
1383," — the identical '' Tabard Inne," immortalised 
by Chaucer, and whence the jovial troop of pil- 
grims sallied forth to perform their devotions at 
the shrine of St. Thomas a-Becket at Canterbury 
Cathedral. Chaucer thus alludes to the Tabard : — 

'' Befell that ia that season on that day, 
In Southwerke at the Tabberd as I lay, 
Ready to wendin on my pilgrimage 
To Omterbnrv, 



180 

The state array, and number, and the cause, 
Why that assembled was this companie 
In South werke, at this gentil hostel rie, 
That hight. The Tabbarde, foste by the Belle." 

South-east of London Bridge once stood Ber- 
niondsey Abbey, founded in 1082. Within its 
walls Katherine, widow of Henry Y., sought an 
asylum from the cares of the world, and here she 
ultimately breathed her last : as did also Elizabeth 
Woodville, widow of Edward lY. Her memorable 
stor}' — the tale of her romantic marriage, the mys- 
terious fate of her children in the Tower, and her 
own intrigues against Bichard III., are well known. 

Thomas Guy, the founder of the Hospital named 
after him, was the son of a lighterman of Horsley- 
down, and born in 1644; He was brought up to 
the business of a bookseller, and enjoyed a lucra- 
tive trade by dealing largely in the importation of 
Bibles from Holland, and afterwards contracting 
with Oxford for those printed at that University ; 
but his principal gains arose from the disreputable 
purchase of seamen's prize tickets, and jobbing in 
South Sea stock. By these means, joined to most 
]>cnurious habits, he amassed a fortune of nearly 
half a million sterling, of which he spent about 
£200,000 in building and endowing the Hospital 
i:i South wark, which boars his name. 



186 

Returning over London Bridge the first object 
that prominently arrests our attention is the Monu- 
ment. 

The Monument, erected in commemoration of 
the Great Fire, is a fluted column over two hun- 
dred feet high, and is ascended by an interior 
staircase. The Urn on the top is forty-five feet 
in height. In the days when Titus Gates inspired 
such terror of the Papists, an inscription was 
placed on the pedestal, ascribing the origin of the 
fire of 1666 to Popish influence ; this, however, 
has been satirised in the well-known lines of 
Pope ; 

" Where London's Cohimn, pointing to the skies, 
Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies." 

Some half a dozen persons have adopted the 
expedient of terminating their existence by a leap 
from the top of the Monument ; the latest instance 
was that of a girl of seventeen, who precipitated 
herself from the dizzy height, August, 1842. 

Passing up Thames-street — narrow, dark, and 
dingy — we come in view of Billingsgate — one of 
the ancient water-gates, or ports of London. It is 
situate between the Custom-House and London 
Bridge. According to antiquarians, it has derived 
its name from Belin, King of the Britons, who 



187 

flourished about 450 B. C. The toll-rates in 
Saxon days, were, for small crafts, one half-penny ; 
large boats, with sails, one penny ; ships, four 
pennies. It has been subsequently " a free mar- 
ket for all manner of floating and shell-fish." 
Fish-street Hill is adjacent, and also Friday -street 
— on Friday was the great fish-sale in Catholic 
times ; they retain their names from this circum- 
stance. Many of the churches erected by Sir 
Christopher AVren are in this vicinity ; among the 
number, that of St. Michael. In the church-yard 
was to be seen the fullowing quaint laconic 
epitaph : 

" Here lieth, wrapt in clny, 

The body of William VVray: 

I have no more to say !" 

In the church of St. Mary at Hill, Billingsgate, 
Dr. Young, the poet, was married ; and beneath 
the chancel. Brand, the author of "The Popular 
Antiquities," is interred : he was rector of this 
church. The Xew Coal Exchange stands oppo- 
site: the annual value of coal imported into Lon- 
don is about £4,000,000 sterling ! 

The long stone edifice known as the Custom 
House is worthy of note, especially on account of 
its " Long Room," which measures nearly two 
hundred feet in length. It is estimated that 



I 88 ■ ■ 

nearly one half the Customs of the United King- 
dom are here collected ; those received at the Port 
of London averaging about £20,000,000 sterling. It 
was on the Quay fronting the Custom House that 
the melancholy Cowper once contemplated snicide. 

The Tower of London — the most ancient of its 
edifices — with its grim battlements and frowning 
towers, now looms in view. Of Tower Hill we 
have a few things to note by the way. 

William Penn was born in the parish of St. 
Catherine, Tower Hill, on the 14th of O ctober, 
164:4:. He was subsequently twice imprisoned in 
the Tower for his religious opinions. During the 
time that her husband was a prisoner in the Tower 
we find Lady Haleigh fixing her residence on Tower 
Hill. In Little Tower-street, Thomson was residing 
in 1726 ; and here he wrote part of his " Seasons," 
— Surrimer. On the west side of Tower Hill is the 
ancient church of Allhallows, Barking. Hither 
were conveyed the headless remains of more than 
one illustrious person after decapitation. This 
antique edifice stands on the spot, if it does not in- 
deed include part of the church founded by Kichard 
Coeur de Lion. It has been the favorite resort of 
successive princes ; among others, Edward the First 
was accustomed here to ofier his devotions. "When 
he wasPrinco of Wales, it is recorded, that, assured 




CUSTOM HOUSE. 



190 

by a vision that he should be victorious over all 
nations, on condition that he should erect an image 
to the Virgin, and pay his adorations to her there, 
five times every year — the superstitious prince re- 
ligiously obeyed the injunctions of the vision ; and 
when subsequently one military success followed 
another, " Our Ladye of Barking" grew into such 
great repute, that pilgrims flocked to her shrine 
with rich presents from all parts of England. 

Richard the Third restored this chapel, and found- 
ed a college ; this latter, however, was suppressed 
in 1548. 

Tower Hill is rife with many a mournfal memory. 
It was here the wise and witty Sir Thomas More ; 
the great Protector, Duke of Somerset ; the accom- 
plished Earl of Surrey ; the lofty Strafford ; the ve- 
nerable Laud ; the patriot Sidney ; and the gay and 
graceful Duke of Monmouth, forfeited their lives, 
as well as numerous other distinguished personages 
whose names figure prominently on the scroll of 
English history. Among a host of scarcely less 
illustrious characters who perished by the hand of 
the executioner on Tower Hill, may be mentioned 
Edward Plantagenet, Earl of "Warwick, son of the 
false and perjured Clarence; the handsome and ac- 
coi iplished adventurer, Perkin Warbeck ; thegallant 
Sir "William Stanley, who placed the crown on the 



head of Henrv the Seventh, on the field ofBosworth ; 
the powerful Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham ; 
Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, the successor of 
Wolsey in the favor of Ilenrj the Eighth ; George 
Lord Rochford, brother of Anne Boleyn ; Margaret, 
Countess of Salisbury, mother of Cardinal Pole ; 
the ambitious Lord Seymour of Sudeley, uncle to 
Edward the Sixth, and brother to the Protector 
Somerset ; the turbulent John Dudley, Duke of 
Northumberland ; Sir Thomas Wyatt ; Lord Guild- 
ford Dudley, the husband of Lady Jane Grey ; her 
father, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk ; Thomas How- 
ard, Duke of Norfolk, the ambitious lover of Mary 
Queen of Scots ; the crafty visionary, Sir Henry 
Yane ; "William Howard, Earl of Stafford, condemn- 
ed on the false evidence of Titus Gates ; Sir John 
Fenwick ; the gallant Charles Radcliffe, brother of 
the Earl of Derwentwater ; and lastly, the infamous 
Simon Eraser, Lord Lovat. 

But it is not entirely from the illustrious blood 
with which it has been drenched, that Tower Hill 
derives its interest. Here, at a cutler's stall, the 
assassin Felton purchased the knife which cut short 
the life of the Duke of Buckingham ; and here at 
the sign of the "Bull," died, in extreme poverty, 
the unfortunate dramatic poet, Thomas Otway: — 
" He died," says Dr. Johnson, " in a manner I am 



192 

unwilling to mention. Having been compelled by 
his necessities to contract debts, and hunted, as is 
supposed, by the terriers of the law, he retired to a 
public house on Tower Hill, where he is said to 
have died of want ; or, as it is related by one of his 
biographers, by swallowing, after a long fast, a 
piece of bread which charity had supplied. He 
went out, as is reported, almost naked, in the rage 
of hunger, and finding a gentleman in a neighbor- 
ing Coffee House, asked him for a shilling ; and 
Otway, going away bought a roll, and was choked 
with the first mouthful." Such, at the age of thirty- 
three, is said to have been the fate of the author of 
" Yenice Preserved." 

Let us now take a brief survey of the Tower : 
this ancient pile, once the bulwark of London, as 
well as the prison-house of its secret crimes, has 
been alternately the residence and prison of royal 
and noble personages for a thousand years. 

William the Conqueror built that portion of the 
Tower of London known as the White Towxr. The 
history of this notable structure is rife with events 
of thrilling interest. As a palace and a prison it is 
more memorable than as a fortress. The historic 
details of the Tower, indeed, form a prominent fea- 
ture in many chapters of the history of England, 
and we call scarcely venture even to refe-r to them 



193 

by name. While the barons were waiting for the 
royal signature to the Magna Charta, the Tower 
was held in trust by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
During the victorious reign of Edward III,, among 
its illustrious inmates were the crowned heads of 
France and Scotland. It was also within its dread- 
ed walls tliat the conference was held by Eichard II. 
and the leaders of the insurrection of Gloucester, 
and the Tower was vigorously besieged in the san- 
guinary conflicts of the Houses of York and Lan- 
caster; while during the civil war, it was succes- 
sively occupied by the contending parties. From 
the Tower, too, Royal processions and pageants 
usually proceeded, as late as the times of James II. 
Among the most costly of these may be mentioned 
the coronation pageants of the haughty Elizabeth 
and the profligate Charles. It was in a cell on the 
first floor of the White Tower that Sir Walter Ea- 
leigh, it is said, wrote his " History of the World." 
On the interior of the walls of this Tower are still 
to be seen the melancholy mementos of terrible 
8ufFerin2:s. One of the most affectinfi: is that of a 
hapless lady, who records the sad story of her 
twelve years' incarceration — it is signed A. W. ; an 
inscription over the door- way of the cell reads as 
follows : " He that indureth to the ende shall be 

saved. M 10. R. Rvdston Dar Kent. and. 
9 




THE TOWEE OF LONDON. 



195 

1553;" and vet another, "Be faithful unto the 
deth and I will give the a crowne of life. T. 
Fane, 1554;" and beneath it, " T. Culpepper of 
Darford." 

The Chapel erected in the reign of Edward I., 
and dedicated to St. Peter and Yincula, possesses 
great interest, from its being the cemetery where 
60 many noble and worthy personages at last found 
repose after suffering from the cruelties of the 
tyrant Henry YIIL The gentle Anne Boleyn slept 
here, beside her noble brother Lord Kichford ; also 
Cromwell, Earl of Essex, and Sir Thomas More. 

The Tower has been designated by the poet 
Gray, as — 

" London's lastinjr shame 
With many a foul and midnight murder fed." 

How many have been the noble and heroic victims 
of state intolerance, cupidity, and mistaken zeal ! 
One of these was the martyred Ticheborne, w^io, 
though he refused to connect himself with the con- 
spiracy for the assassination of Elizabeth, yet fell a 
sacrifice to suspicion. His pathetic verses penned 
just prior to his execution, are as follow : 

" My prime of youth is but a frost of cares, 
My feast of joy is hut a dish of pain, 
My crop of corn is but a field of tares, 

And all my goods are but vain hopes of gain. 



196 

The day is fled, and yet I saw the sun, 
And now I live, and now my life is done. 



" My spring is past, and yet it hath not sprung, 
The fruit is dead, and yet the leaves are green j 
My youth is past and yet I am but young, 

I saw the world, and I was not seen : 
My thread is cut, and yet it is not spun. 
And now I live, and now my life is done." 

The principal parts of the Tower usually in- 
spected by visitors, are the Armory, containing 
equestrian figures in armor, from the reign of Ed- 
ward I. to James II. ; Queen Elizabeth's Armory, 
which is situated in the White Tower, and was the 
prison of Sir "Walter Raleigh and others, during 
the reign of Queen Mary ; the " Regalia," or royal 
jewels, contained in another apartment, are esti- 
mated at three millions sterling. St. Edward's 
Crown was made for the coronation of Charles II., 
and has been since used at the coronation of all the 
Sovereigns of Great Britain since that period to 
our days. This Crown is identically the same that 
Blood stole from the Tower, May 9, 1671. The 
new crown made for the coronation of Queen Yic- 
toria, is a purple velvet cap, enclosed by hoops of 
silver, and studded with a great quantity of dia- 
monds. The upper part is composed of an orb, 



197 

adorned with precious stones, and surmounted by 
a cross. Amongst these diamonds is a magnificent 
ruby, worn by the Black Prince, and a sapphire of 
matchless beauty. The value of this crown is cal- 
culated at £111,900. Think of a space of two 
feet square representing property to the value of 
$15,000,000. These are magnificent baubles to 
gaze upon, but what vast benefit might be con- 
ferred upon the poor Spitalfields weavers were this 
amount devoted to their urgent necessities ! In 
the Eecord Office are kej^t the rolls from the time 
of King John to the reign of Richard III. 

At Queenhithe lived Tom Hill, as he was fami- 
liarly called. He died in 1840. This singular 
character, when in business at the unlettered Queen- 
hithe, found leisure to accumulate a fine collection 
of books, chiefly old poetry ; which afterwards, 
when misfortune overtook him, was valued at 
£6000. Hill was like a jMiecenas ; he patronised 
two friendless poets, Bloomfield and Kirke White. 
" The Farmer's Boy " of the former was read and ad- 
mired by him in manuscript, and was recommended 
to a publisher. Hill also established the " Month- 
ly Mirror," to which Kirke White was a contribu- 
tor. Hill was the Hull of Hook's '' Gilbert Gurney." 
He happened to know everything that was going 
on in all circles. 



198 

East Smitbfield was the birthplace of Spencer, 
author of " The Faerie Queene." 

The Eoyal Mint, on Tower Hill, is worthy of a 
visit on account of the various ingenious processes 
connected with coining which are carried on in that 
establishment. Sixty or seventy sixpences are 
struck in one minute, and other coins with similar 
rapidity. The present master of the Mint is Sir G. 
"W. Herschel, the astronomer ; Sir Isaac ISTewton 
once held the same office. 



199 



CHAPTER X. 

Street Organists— The Thames Tuuncl— London Docks— Deptford and Wool- 
wich— Grcrnwich Hospital— Crutched Friars— The Minorics— Lord 
Cobhnm— Eiist Smithtiold— Ratclitte Highway — Aldgate — Whitechapel 
—Bishopsgate-street— Crosby Hall— St. Giles's, Cripplegate— Barbican 
— Moortielda — Finsbury-squure — Bunhill Fields — Battle-bridge — Old St. 
Pancras — Islington — Cnnonbury House— CoUins's House— Charlea 
Lamb's Cottage— Chalk Farm — St. James's Chapel— Hampstead— Ken- 
sal Green Cemetery— llighgate— Harrow-on the-Hill — Aylesbury-street, 
Clerken well— Anecdote of Thomas Britton — Old -street-road- St. Bo- 
tolph's Church— Little Britain and its booksellers— The Post Office. 




.'/ K introduce our itinerant 

• iriTJiHist in this part of 

the City to the reader, not 

because this class of noisy 

street musicians is more 

numerous in any particular 

district, they abound in all 

the streets of the Metropolis. 

]>ut let us say a word or 

two respecting the Thames 

and its memories. 

Queen Elizabeth died at Richmond, and her 

body was brought with great pomp by water to 

Whitehall. The following far-fetched conceit is by 

a quaint contemporary poet: — 



200 

" The Queen was brought by water to Whitehall : 
At every stroke the oars did tears let fall : 
More clung- about the barge ; fish under water 
Wept out their eyes of pearl, and swam blind after." 

Cowley died at Chertsej, on the Thames, and his 
body was carried by water to Whitehall ; Pope, in 
his " "Windsor Forest," thus refers to it : — 

" Oh, early lost ! what tears the river shed 
When the sad pomp along his banks was led." 

^N^elson's body was brought in great state by wa- 
ter from Greenwich to Whitehall. State prisoners, 
committed from the Council Chamber to the Tower 
or the Fleet, were invariably taken by water. The 
Thames, that carried, in the reign of James II., 
the seven bishops to the Tower, was made the 
repository of the Great Seal of England, which 
James, in his flight, threw into the river, while 
crossing in a small boat from Millbank to Lambeth. 
It was accidentally fished up a few months after. 

The Thames Tunnel, which is regarded as a 
triumph of skill rather than as a work of real utility, 
is yet an object of especial interest to the lovers of 
the marvellous. The Tunnel is one thousand three 
hundred feet in length, with two arched passages 
of massive brici:-work, sixteen feet four inches wide 
each, and a path of hree feet wide for foot-passen- 
gers. 



1> U 1 

The London Docks are among the marvels of 
the Metropolis, also the Dockyards of Deptford 
and "Woolwich. Tlie military establishment at the 
latter town affords accommodation for four thou- 
sand men. The area of the Arsenal includes no less 
than twenty-four thousand pieces of ordnance, and 
three millions of cannon balls, piled up in huge 
pyramids. Greenwich Hospital, a splendid edifice, 
occupying a terrace of eight hundred feet, is an asy- 
lum for disabled seamen ; it is of remote origin, 
having been -a royal residence as early as 1300. 
The astronomical observatory, on Greenwich Hill, 
from which longitudes are reckoned, was founded 
by Charles H. Henry YH. resided much at the 
palace of Greenwich, and here his son and succes- 
sor was born. Edward VI. ended his short reign at 
Greenwich ; Queens Mary and Elizabeth were both 
born here, and the latter selected it as her favorite 
summer residence. Charles H. commenced the 
erection of the present palace, and in the year 1696 
Sir Christopher Wren enlarged and completed it. 
The most noble apartment is the Great Hall, 
which is adorned with the paintings of Sir James 
Thornliill. There is an incident related of this emi- 
nent artist which may not be familiar to the reader. 
During the progress of his splendid painting of the 

ceiling, a visitor on one occasion ascended the plat» 
9^ 



202 

form ; and while in the act of indicating its beauties, 
the artist kept receding, in order to judge of the 
effect of the painting, till at length he reached to 
the very verge of the scaffolding. Seeing his immi- 
nent peril, his friend instantly caught the paint- 
brush, and rushing forward, daubed the picture. 
The act startled the painter, and hastily drew 
him from the spot, which saved his life. The num- 
ber of Greenwich pensioners is about three 
thousand. They seem to have a pleasant time of 
it, having nothing to do but to smoke their pipes, 
and rehearse long yarns to each other of their early 
exploits. Nelson is the tutular deity ; and if they 
are dismembered of a limb, they exhibit the 
wooden stump as a trophy of their heroism. The 
revenue of Greenwich Hospital is stated at 
£130,000. The view from Greenwich Park is most 
magnificent. Here the river is very wide, and 
sinuous in its course till it reaches the City, which 
bounds the picture on the west. One-Tree Hill is a 
bold projection in Greenwich Park, from which the 
eye rests upon clumps of rich foliage, deep hollows, 
and embowering dells. This park is of sylvan 
beauty, and one of the great pleasure resorts of the 
Londoners. "We must now, however, transport the 
reader back again to the City, as we have many 
things of note yet to indicate, which claim our notice. 



VTe recommence our street waiideri 112:8 with 
Sectliing-lane, anciently Sidon-lane. In former 
times, several distinguished persoi ages resided 
here ; among others, Pepys. Crutcbed Friars, or 
Crossed Friars, is so called from the brotherhood 
founded about 1300, and styled Fratres Sanctm 
Crucis. The members of this order were decorat- 
ed with a red cross on their garments, and carried 
an iron one in their hand. To the west of Mark- 
lane and Crutched Friars is the Minories, once 
occupied by Xuns of the Order of St. Clair. A 
convent was founded here in 1293. This edifice 
subsequently became the residence of the unfortu- 
nate Duke of Suffolk, who was beheaded for his 
attempt to raise his daughter. Lady Jane Gray, to 
the throne. 

It was in a wretched hovel in the Minories that 
Lord Cobham, once the possessor of a })rincely 
fortune, and the last descendant of an illustrious 
race, closed his life in poverty. Having been 
sentenced to death with Lord Grey, of Wilton, for 
their participation in the alleged conspiracy of Sir 
"Walter Ealeigh, they were led to the scaffold, 
without any apj>arent prospect of a reprieve. 
Almost at the moment, however, when they were 
about to lay their heads upon the block, the intel- 
ligence came that their lives were spared. Lord 



2 U 1 

Grey died in prison, and his ill-fated companion in 
the miserable tenement of his former laundress. 
His wife, Ladj Cobham, although liviiig in 
affluence at the time, is said to have refused him 
the means of procuring a crust of bread or a clean 
shirt ! Eastward from the Minories (which we 
might mention, in passing, is now occupied by 
Jews and dealers in second-hand clothes,) is Good- 
man's Fields, the site of a Roman burial-place — 
which derives its name from one Goodman, who 
owned the estate in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 
The celebrated tragedian, David Garrick, performed 
at the theatre in this vicinity, before crowded 
audiences of the leau monde. Crossing Rosemary- 
lane, we pass into East-Smithfield : here it is that 
Edmund Spenser, the poet, first saw the light. 

From East-Smithfield we pass into the ancient 
village of Ratcliffe-Highway, so named in conse- 
quence of the red cliff which was once visible there. 
In 1814, this place was rendered notorious as being 
the scene of the fearful massacre of the Marr and 
Williamson families which, at the time, spread 
consternation throughout the metropolis, never sur- 
passed by any similar atrocities. These families 
were murdered at midnight, and the perpetrators 
of the crimes were never detected. I^ear 
Aldgate Pump lived the renowned antiquary. 



2 5 

Stowe, the historian of the metropolis. D'ls- 
raeli says of him : — " His stupendous collections 
in his own hand-writing still exist, to provoke the 
feeble industry of modern literary loiterers." Spen- 
ser was accustomed to repair to the library of the 
great literary antiquary ; yet in the latter part of 
his life so reduced ^vas he in his circumstances, 
that he had to petition James I. for " a license 
to collect alms for himself," as a recompense for 
his forty-five years' labor and travel in collecting 
tlie chronicles of England, and eight years in 
making the survey of the City of London. He died 
in 1605, at the age of eighty, and was buried in 
the neighboring church of St. Andrew Undershaft. 
Adjoining Aldgate is Whitechapel, w^ith its Church 
of St. Mary Mat-felon. In this churchyard was 
buried Richard Brandon, the reputed executioner 
of Charles the First. Beneath a house at the 
south-east corner of Leadenhall-street may be seen 
the remains of the once magnificent Priory of the 
Holy Trinity. Of the lordly prior of this monas- 
tery, Stowe says, " He kept a most beautiful house 
of meat and drink, both for rich and poor, as well 
within the house as at the gates, to all comers, ac- 
cording to their estates." 

Bishopsgate-street derives its name from one of 
the ancient city gates, said to have been originally 



206 

built in 680, bj Erkenwald, Bishop of London. 
Till recently, several antique houses existed in this 
locality, of which but two or three remain. Crosby 
Hall, a well-known and beautiful relic of antiquity, 
is situated in Crosby Place, near by. It was in 
this Hall Sir Thomas More wrote " Utopia," and 
here the great Sully lodged for a time. Crosby 
Hall is all that remains of an ancient magnificent 
palace, once the residence of Richard IH. Al- 
though four centuries old, the splendid roof and 
windows of this glorious old mansion are as fresh as 
ever. Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the 
Royal Exchange, occupied a noble mansion in 
Crosby Place. At his death it was converted into 
a college, which he endowed. This wealthy knight 
is said to have possessed no less a sum than 
£236,000. He was liberal as he was rich, having 
given at one time towards the repairs of St. Paul's 
£19,000 ! To the east of Crosby-square stands the 
ancient church of St. Helen's the Great. The inte- 
rior of this remarkable church is more picturesque 
than the exterior. It abounds with altar-tombs 
more than any other church in London. These 
monuments are singularly interesting, as affording 
glimpses both of the sculpture and customs of the 
15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Sir Thomas Gres- 
ham's monument is among the number. The in- 



207 

scriptiun is remarkable for its simplicity, recording 
merely the name of the deceased, <ind tlie date of 
his birth and death. St. Giles's Chnrch, Cripple- 
gate, which was founded in 1030, is situated just 
without the London Wall, of which a portion remains 
on the south side of the churchyard. For many 
years the exact resting-place of Milton was undisco- 
vered ; but tradition has, notwithstanding, the faith- 
ful record, which is corroborated by the entry of 
the parish register, which is as follows : — " 12th 
Xovember, 1674, John Milton, gentleman, con- 
sumption, chancell." On the 4th of August, 1790, 
a search was made for the remains of the great 
poet, and his coffin was found under the spot indi- 
cated. Cripplegate is memorable fur its great 
antiquity and historical associations ; and also on 
account of the many illustrious personages who 
have been buried within its walls ; among their 
number, John Fox, the Martyrologist, who died 
1587. It was at the altar of this church that 
Oliver Cromwell was married to Elizabeth Bour- 
chier. In Jerome-street Ciiapel is preserved John 
Bunyan's Pulpit. Milton's reconciliation with his 
first wife took ])lace at his house in Barbican, in 
1646. The name is said to have derived its origin 
from the ancient Burgh-Kenning, or watch tower, 
which formerly stood near Aldersgate. 



208 

Passing on to Moorfields, we reach. Finsbury- 
square. In the time of Pepys, and even as far 
back as the 12th century, this was the favorite 
place of recreation for the citizens of London. 
The pastimes of those days are graphically de- 
scribed in the " Fortunes of Nigel." This locality 
derives its name from the great fen or moor which 
watered the City on the north. Arrangements are 
now made for completing the purchase of one hun- 
dred and fifty acres for Finsbury Pari* at a cost of 
£150,000. Adjoining Finsbury- square, in Artillery 
Place, Bunhill-row, is the house in which Milton 
completed his " Paradise Lost," and in which he 
breathed his last, in 1674. "We learn from Phillips, 
his biographer and nephew, that, in summer wea- 
ther, the great poet used to sit at the door of his 
house, in a coarse gray cloak, to enjoy the fresh air, 
and in this manner he received the visits of per- 
sons of rank and genius. On the west side of the 
Artillery Ground may be seen Bunhill-fields — one 
of the sacred spots of earth, in which lie clustered 
the remains of the great and good of past days. 
It is called, technically, the " Dissenters' Burying 
Gixund." " Honest John Bunyan ;" Dr. Watts ; 
Dr. Goodwin, who attended Cromwell on his death- 
bed ; George Fox, the founder of the Quakers ; 
De Foe, the author of " Robinson Crusoe ;" Dunton, 



209 

the bookseller ; Dr. Abraham Rees, editor of the 
"Cyclopedia ;" Eitson, the antiquary ; Ilorne Tooke ; 
and Thomas Stothard, the royal academician ; with 
many others of tlie illustrious dead, all share their 
" long repose " in these hallowed precincts. Nearly 
opposite Bunhill-fields is the " Tabernacle," Moor 
fields. Here the celebrated John Wesley preached, 
and here he was buried. 

Battle-bridge, now called King's Cross, is said 
to have been the site of the battle in which Boa- 
dicea was the heroine. Here also took place a 
conflict between King Alfred and the Danes. Oliver 
Cromwell had an observatory near this spot. 

Old St. Pancras, built in the twelfth century, is 
one of the churches mentioned in the Doomsday 
survey. The Churchyard is small, but excessively 
crowded with ancient monuments, the majority 
being Catholic. Among the distinguished names 
will be found recorded that of the celebrated writer 
Mary Woolstonecraft, and Godwin, the author of 
"Caleb Williams;" and the Corsican General, 
Paoli ; the mother of Shelley ; Walker, the lexi- 
cographer ; Woodhcad, the reputed author of the 
" AVhole Duty of Man ;" Ward, author of the 
" London Spy," etc. 

Stretching northward is Islington, where lived 
Sir Walter Kaleigh ; William Collins, the poet, 



210 

whom Johnson visited here in his retirement, and 
thus describes his interview : — " There was no- 
thing of disorder discernible in his mind by an^^ 
but himself ; but he had withdrawn from study, 
and travelled with no other book than an English 
Testament, such as children carry to school ; when 
his friend took it in his hand, out of curiosity, to see 
what companion a man of letters had chosen : ' I 
have but one book,' said Collins, ' but that is the 
best.' " Oliver Goldsmith ; Colley Cibber ; and 
Alexander Cruden, author of the " Concordance," 
who was found dead on his knees in the posture of 
prayer, also resided here. His house was in Cam- 
den-passage. Canonbury-house, not far from the 
church, was a residence of Queen Elizabeth, and 
was built by Henry YIIL A tower, fifty-eight feet 
high, still remains, as well as the old walls of the 
gardens. It once belonged to the priors of St. 
Bartholomew. 

Nichols, the author of "Literary Anecdotes," 
lived in Highbury Place. In Colbrooke-row, near 
the New River, lived Charles Lamb. It is thus 
pleasantly described by his own pen in one of his 
letters : — 

" When you come Londonward, you will find me 
no longer in Covent Garden ; I have a cottage in 
Colbrook-row, Islington ; a cottage, for it is de- 



211 

tached, a white house witli six good rooms in it ; 
the !N^ew Riv^er (rather eklerly by tliis time) runs 
close to the foot of the house ; and behind it a spa- 
cious garden with vines, peai*s, strawberries, pars- 
nips, leeks, carrots, and cabbages, to delight the 
heart of old Alcinous. You enter without passage 
into a cheerful dining-room, all studded over and 
rough with old books ; and above is a lightsome 
drawing room, its windows full of choice prints. 
I feel like a great lord, never having had a house 
before." 

Chalk Farm is the noted place for duels. Moore 
and Jeffreys fought here on account of an article in 
the "Edinburgh Review," which Byron satirises 
in the " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers." 

Continuing our way northward we arrrive at 
Ilampstead, the scene of Lord George Gordon's 
Popery Riots. In the churchyard of St. James's 
Chapel are buried Morland, the painter ; and Lord 
George Gordon. In a narrow street on the left, at 
No. 10, lived AVilkie ; here he painted his " Blind 
Fiddler." Near by is " Jack Straw's Castle." The 
view of London from Ilampstead Heath is very 
imposing. Kensal Green Cemetery is well worthv 
of a visit. Here are the tombs of the following 
celebrated individuals. The IHike of Sussex — the 
brightest ornament of the family of George III. and 



212 

an eminent book collector, whose library contained 
about three thousand different editions of the Bible 
in various languages. In the same mausoleum is 
buried his sister, the Princess Sophia; it is near 
the Chapel of the cemetery. Here also are buried 
Lockhart and his wife, daughter of Sir Walter 
Scott ; Allan Cunningham, the author ; John Mur- 
ray, the publisher, and friend of Byron ; Eev. 
Sydney Smith; Thomas Barnes, the well-known 
editor of the " Times ;" Hood, the poet and punster ; 
Liston, the comedian; Loudon, the laborious author 
of works on Agriculture ; Sir A. Callcot, the land- 
scape painter ; Dr Birkbeck ; Sir W. Beattie, E'el- 
son's surgeon at Trafalgar ; Thomas Daniell, the 
landscape painter ; etc. 

Highgate was the residence of Coleridge, and 
also of the elder Mathews, the comedian. We 
should not omit to mention Harrow-on-the-Hill, 
with its pointed church spire looking so picturesque 
in the distance; at the celebrated school here many 
eminent men were educated — Lord Byron, Sheri- 
dan, Parr, Sir Robert Peel, etc. 

In Aylesbury-street, Clerkenwell, resided the 
eccentric bibliomaniac, Thomas Britton. This 
curious character lived in the Augustan age of 
Queen Anne. Ho came to London from a 
northern county, and, after serving an humble 



213 

apprenticeship, embarked in business as a kind of 
costermonger ; he was in the habit of actually 
crying his coal about the streets. His attire was a 
Guernsey frock ; he carried a black sack on his 
shoulders, and a coal measure in his hands. One 
day, passing nigh the house of Woollaston, the 
painter, in AVarwick-lane, Britton, being in his 
work-a-day attire, gave out lustily his well-known 
cry of " Small Coal." Woollaston's attention was 
attracted, and he recognised in the voice that of 
his musical acquaintance, Britton, whom he had 
never seen in the pursuit of his ordinary trade. 
The artist at once beckoned Britton in, and there 
and then took his portrait as he sat — a veritable 
itinerant coal-dealer. But we must notice the 
small-coal man under his bibliopole phase. A 
bibliomania raged among Queen Anne's nobility. 
The Earls of Oxford, Pembroke, Sunderland, and 
Winchelsea, and the Duke of Devonshire, were 
among the smitten. These pereonages, on Satur- 
days, during the winter season, used to resort to 
the city, and there separating, take several routes to 
the booksellers' shops in diflferent parts of the 
town, to search out old volumes and MSS. Some 
time before noon, they would assemble at the shop 
of Christopher Batcman, a bookseller, at the 
corner of Ave-Maria-lane, in Paternoster-row, 



214 

where they were frequently met by other persons 
engaged in the same pursuit, and a conversation 
commenced on the subject of their purchases. As 
nearly as possible to the hour of twelve, by St. 
Paul's clock, Britton, (who by that time had finish- 
ed his rounds,) clad in his blue frock, and pitching 
his sack of small coal on the bulk of Mr. Bate- 
man's shop window, used to go in and join them. 
After about an hour's chat, the noblemen adjourn- 
ed to the " Mourning Bush" Tavern, at Alders- 
gate (probably the site of the present Albion 
Tavern), where they dined, and spent the remain- 
der of the day. 

The Cross Keys Inn, on the east side of John- 
street, Clerkenwell, was a favorite haunt of 
Richard Savage. Old-street was so called from its 
having been the old highway from the city to the 
north-east. Psalmanazar, who invented a lan- 
guage which puzzled the learned of his day, lived 
in this street. He used to meet Johnson and 
others at a public-house here. When Johnson was 
asked whether he ever contradicted Psalmanazar, 
he replied " Sir, I should as soon have contradict- 
ed a bishop." 

On the north side of St. Botolph's Church, to 
the south of which stood Aldersgate, is Little Bri- 
tain, which derives its name from having been the 



215 

residence of the Dukes of Bretagnc. Previous to 
the booksellers occupying Paternoster-row, Little 
Britain was the great literary emporium. One 
Chiswell, resident here in 1711, was the metropo- 
litan bookseller, the "Longman" of his time: and 
here lived Pawlinson ("Tom Folio" of "The Tat- 
ler," No. 158), who stuffed four chambers in Gray's 
Lm so full, that his bed was removed into the 
passage. John Day, the famous early printer, 
lived "over Aldcrsgate." Milton and the learned 
pundits of his day were frequenters of this once 
classic site. Franklin also lodged in this street 
when lie worked as journeyman in Bartholomew 
Close. Here, at the beginning of the last century, 
resided a celebrated publisher, John Dunton, who 
is called by his biographer " the most eminent in 
his profession in the three kingdoms, who well 
deserves the title of Metropolitan Bookseller in 
England. lie has not been known to print either 
a bad Ixiok, or on bad ])aper." His " Life and 
Errors" may derive some qualification by the ad- 
mission of the above-named fact, since it can be 
predicated of l)ut few of his craft. 

The Post-Office, in St. Martin's-lc-Grand, is a 
noble edifice, from the designs of Smirke. The 
statistics of this establishment are startling for their 
magnitude — its number of clerks and letter carriers 



216 

amounting to about fen thousand persons in Eng- 
land and Wales, and about three thousand addi- 
tional in Scotland and Ireland. The number of 




letters delivered in 1848 was estimated at three 
hundred and twenty-nine millions, and the ratio 
since then has been on the increase. Since the 
reduction of postage, effected by Mr. Kowland Hill, 
it is computed that the number of letters has been 
more than quadrupled. 



21 



C H A P T J<: R XI. 

Christ's Hospital— Sl John's Gate— Pie Comer— Smithficld— St. Bartholo- 
mew's Church and Hospital — Ely Place and House -Hatton Garden — 
Edward Irving — St. Andrew's Church — The Blue Boar— Fleur-de-lya 
Court— Dwelling-place of Dryden— Thomas Chatterton— Gray's Inn and 
its distinguished n^sidents — Red Lion-street— Holbom — BlackLetter 
Booksellers — Great Queen-street — Anecdote of Dr. RadclifFe and Sir 
Godfrey Kneller— Leicester-square — St. Anne's Church, Soho — Prince's- 
street — Argyll street — Conduit-street — George-street, ILuiover-square — 
Bond-street- Brooke-street- The Coliseum. 



HEIST'S Hospital, or the Blue 
Coat School, founded by Edward 
YL, is still one of the most emi- 
nent seats of learning in the British 
Metropolis. It has produced many dis- 
tinguished men, among them Bishop Stil- 
ingfleet ; Charles Lamb ; Leigh Hunt ; 
William Camden, author of the "Britan- 
Samuel Eichardson, author of '' Clarissa 
Harlowe ;" Coleridge, the poet, etc. There is per- 
haps no spot in London which has witnessed so 
much dreary horror as the ground occupied by the 
Charter House. In its precincts lie the remains 
of no fewer than 100,000 human beings who fell 
victims to the Plague which devastated the Metro- 
10 




218 

polis in the reign of Edward III. ; and which, 
according to Stowe, nearly decimated the inhabi- 
tants. This edifice is of great antiquity, and has 
been variously occupied, as a monastery, a royal 
and noble residence, and an endowed school. 
The pensioners on this establishment are eighty 
" decayed gentlemen" and forty-four scholars. 
Queen Elizabeth visited the Charter House on 
more than one occasion ; and that worthy non-con- 
formist, Eichard Baxter, breathed his last in one 
of its apartments, in 1691. 

Among the celebrated scholars who emanated 
from this school are the following : — Tooke, the 
author of " The Pantheon ;" Addison ; Steele ; 
John Wesley ; Bagford, the antiquary, originally 
a shoemaker and afterwards a bookseller, and 
whose "History of Printing" forms part of the 
Harleian Collection, in the British Museum ; 
Isaac Barrow, the divine, who was celebrated at 
school for his love of fighting ; Sir William Black- 
stone, author of the " Commentaries ;" Joseph Ad- 
dison ; Sir C. L. Eastlake, E. A. ; the two eminent 
historians of Greece, Bishop Thirlwall and George 
Grote, Esq. 

St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, one of the oldest 
relics of London, is still standing. It is full of 
historic associations, and the literary antiquary 



2 1 9 

will remember that the lirst number of " The 
Gentleman's Magazine,'' the earliest publication 
of its class, was issued from this place. Boswell 
speaks of the " reverence " with which Johnson 
gazed upon the antique pile. There was au an- 
cient order connected with this gate, called the 
Knights of 8t. John, who were accustomed to re- 
gale themselves with beer and tobacco, yet they 
were very rigid in the observance of their devo- 
tions, and zealous in the defence of Christianity 
against Paganism. 

John Bunyan died, in 1688, at the house of his 
friend, Mr. Strudwick, a grocer, at the sign of the 
^' Star," on Snow-Hill. Pie Corner, West Smith- 
field, was the place where the Fire of 1666 ceased ; 
it began at Pudding Lane — a strange coincidence 
of names, since the calamity was occasioned, it is 
affirmed, l)y the sin of gluttony. There is an al- 
lusion in the Roxburgh Ballads to Pie Corner, in 
this wise : 

" Next day I through Pie Corner past; 
The roast meat on the stall 
Invited me to take a taste : 
My money was but small." 

Smithfield, corrupted from Smooth-field, natural- 
ly brings to the mind scenes of deep and stirring 



220 

interest. In early times it was tlie site of tilts and 
tournaments, subsequently it witnessed the pains 
and heroism of martyrdom — the noble victims of 
Popish cruelty. The Tower of St. Bartholomew's 
Church, which is still standing at the eastern corner 
of Smithfield, was illumined by the flames kindled 
for those illustrious confessors, of whom the world 
was not worthy, one of the earliest being the 
amiable and high-minded Anne Askew. St. Bar- 
tholomew's, which is believed to have been used 
secretly by the Reformers of the 16th century, from 
its having subterranean chambers, occupies the site 
of the Priory founded by Rahere, the minstrel, in 
the reign of Henry II., who granted him the privi- 
lege of holding a fair, yearly, at Bartholomew- tide, 
for three days. Smithfield is thus rendered remark- 
able for its annual fair, about which the less said 
the better, for it is distinguished by its mummeries 
and its mountebanks. Rahere, the prior, built this 
church in consequence of a nocturnal vision which 
visited him, instructing him, in the name of the 
saint, to do so. There is a monument erected to 
nis memory within the church. 

The last person who suffered was Bartholomew 
Leggett, who was burnt for denying the Athana- 
sian and jSTicene creeds. The space in the centre of 
the pens, and facing the gate of St. Bartholomew's 




ST. BAKTIIOLOMEWS CHURCH. 



222 

Hospital, where the martyrs were consumed by 
flame, was long clearly indicated, being near a 
large board ; the ground about the stake was paved 
with stones, circularly placed. 

On the north side of Holborn Hill are Ely-place 
and Hatton Garden, — the former deriving its name 
from the episcopal palace of the bishops of Ely — 
the latter from the adjoining residence of Sir Chris- 
topher Hatton, the graceful courtier and eminent 
'Statesman of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Ely 
House, in the days of its splendor, was very stately : 
the grounds covered twenty acres. It was founded 
in 1290, and was the scene of some stirring events. 
Here " old John o' Gaunt, time-honored Lancaster," 
breathed his last, and according to Shakespeare, ad- 
monishing his dissipated nephew, Ei chard II. 
Here too, says Holinshed, " did assemble that me- 
morable council, and was enacted the terrible 
drama which was followed by the arrest of Lord 
Stanley, and of Jane Shore, the execution of Lord 
Hastings, and the dethronement and death of the 
ill-fated Edward the Fifth !" Here also took place 
some royal entertainments, and among the number 
that at which Henry YIII. and Catharine of Arra- 
gon sat as guests, which lasted five days. The last 
" mystery," or sacred drama, represented in Eng- 
land, that of " Christ's Passion," was, it is said, per- 



223 

foi-med at Ely House in the reign of James the 
Fii*st. Sir Christojiher Ilatton breathed his last in 
Hatton House, dying, it is reported, of a broken 
heart, in consequence of his being unable to repay 
£4:0,000 which Queen Elizabeth formerly lent him, 
and which she had pressed him to return. In 
Cross-street, Hatton Garden, lived the eminent 
divine, AVhiston ; and here, also, in modern times, 
shone, for a season, that " bright particular star" — 
that theological Demosthenes — Edward Irving, 
whose brief but brilliant career as a pulpit orator 
for a time made this obscure nook the resort of the 
wealth and fashion of the metropolis. It was here 
Irving presented his most striking and imposing air 
of originality, both as to his phf/sique and his gigan- 
tic powers. Erect and stately in his bearing, his 
tall figure and most expressive features shrouded 
by masses of long black hair, parted on the fore- 
head and flowing down his back, he looked like one 
of the olden time, — remindiuG^ us of those ma^:- 
nates of apostolic mould and mien, whose names 
shine so lustrously over the mediaeval history of the 
Church. The flashing glance of his piercing dark 
eye, in its " fine frenzy rolling," at once proclaimed 
him to be of no ordinary standard ; and when the 
energy of his soul was kindled up, such was the 
witchery of his fervid and impassioned appeals, 



224 

that multitudes were held spell-bound by his utter- 
ance, with an inexpressible fascination. His dis- 
courses partook more of the epic than the sermon ; 
modelled closelj from the great masters in theology, 
he possessed not only their quaint beauty of diction, 
but also their rich poetic imagery and illustration, 
as well as their masterly logic. His terrible denun- 
ciations against the vices incident to the higher 
ranks of society were hurled with fearless intrepidi- 
ty, and often were these rebukes thundered in their 
very ears. In this respect he seemed to resemble 
the invincible John Knox. Yet did the aristocracy 
crowd his chapel to such a degree as almost to ex- 
clude everybody else ; Brougham, Canning, the 
Duke of York, Hazlitt, Kean, Wordsworth, and 
hosts of other celebrities were among his attendants. 
St. Andrew's, Holborn, was erected by Wren, in 
1686. The far-famed Sacheverel was once a rector 
of this church. The parish registers record the 
baptism and burial of two of our most unfortunate 
sons of song : — under the 18th of January, 1696-7, 
the baptism of Richard Savagp3 ; and under the 28th 
of August, 1770, the burial of Thomas Chatterton. 
In Holborn, between King-street and Southamp- 
ton-street, lived Sir Ken elm Digby. The Blue 
Boar Inn, No. 270 High Holborn, is where a letter 
from Charles I. was intei-cepted by Cromwell and 



225 

Ireton, disguised as troopers. This letter is said to 
liave determined the king's execution. 

The thoroughfiire formerly known as Fleur-de- 
lys Court, but now yclept Lion's Head Court, is 
celebrated for having been the dwelling-place of 
Dryden. The following quaint allusion to the 
act we cite from the admirable " Recreations of 
W. Zigzag the Elder :"— 

" From Fetter-lane to Poet's Corner — toil, penu- 
ry, and ignoble strife ; with some brief glimpses of 
that thing by mortals called immortality ; — the boon 
of the few really great, which men tardily award, 
some century or so after the grave has closed over 
them, and the mockery of marble has proclaimed 
that he who in vain asked bread has at least received 
a stone ; where ' the wicked cease from troubling, 
and the weary are at rest :' then do booksellers reck- 
on the gain of new editions, by sums one tithe of 
which would have provided the author with some- 
thing more than a clean shirt and a -dinner; the for- 
mer a luxury only to be enjoyed by the concession 
of a laundress, her temper growing shorter in pro- 
portion to the increasing longitude of her bill, and 
the latter partaken too often with the Barmecide, 
or at the hospitable board of Duke Humphrey ; 
such in the days of t) e Second Charles, of blessed 
memory, was the fate of the poet dependant upon 



226 

the cajDrices of fashion for his daily bread, and some- 
what like this was the fate of John Dryden, one who 
might have taken his place among the highest, had 
he not sought all too much the incense of the 
fleeting hour, and bought it at the dear cost of a 
poet's apotheosis : — ' the head of the idol was gold, 
but his feet were of clay.' Fetter-lane, the scene 
where Dryden commenced his career, has maintain- 
ed its original character in the name Fetter or 
Fewter Lane, which is thus described by Stowe : — 
' Fewter-Lane, which stretcheth south into Fleet- 
street, by the east end of St. P'.nstan's Church, 
and is so called of Fewters (or i e people) lying 
there.' But in the poet's time this place of ill- 
omenf^,! designation had been improved by the 
erection of certain tenements of a more reputable 
aspect; in short, dwellings where a poet might 
'tarve genteely ; and the house in question, if not 
ng the most stately, is yel. uo. devoid of a 
'^^ipracter somewhat ornamental, according to the 
:e of the time. The last nook, but that portion 
of a poet's domicile which is always visited with 
the greatest curiosity and veneration, is the up- 
permost story or garret. Somehow the notion of 
a poet's chamber is governed by an association 
of the ideas of flights of genius and flights of stairs. 
Tes, this obscure landing is certainly the vestibule 



227 

to tlie S(xnctiirn sanctoram • it is very dark, and 
the atmosphere is assuredly not that of niyrrli and 
frankincense." 

Adjacent to Furnivars Inn, Brooke-street, is 
an obscure grocery store, over which is the room 
where, after three days' starvation, poor Chatterton 
committed suicide. If ever so terrible a crime 
could admit of palliation, it must be under such 
distressing circumstances as his. We visited the 
spot as one of the shrines of ill-fated genius, after 
reading the deeply interesting memoirs of his sad 
and brief care'^" written by Cunningham. This 
house, we regr - to learn, has recently been pulled 
down, to make way for modern improvements. The 
following particulars of his last hours we co] / from 
the pen of one of his biographers : — 

" His room when broken open was found co- 
vered with little scraps of paper. Mrs. Anp^^^ 
stated that fof 'iSsd d.iys, when he did not aK- c 
himself from his room, he went without sustenr**'" ' 
of any kind ; on one occasion, when she knew R^' 
t<j be in want of food, slie begged he would take a 
little dinner with lier; he was offended at the in- 
vitation, and assured her he was not hurigry. Mr. 
Cross, also, an apothecary in Brooke-street, gave 
evidence that he repeatedly pressed Chatterton to 
dine or sup with liim ; and when, with ir»'(''it difli- 



228 

culty, he was one evening prevailed on to partake 
of a barrel of oysters, he was observed to eat most 
voraciously." 

In the vicinity of Holborn is Gray's Inn. To 
the gateway of this Inn a certain interest attaches 
from its having been the site of the celebrated 
publishing establishment of Jacob Tonson, who 
appears to have resided here between the years 
1697 and 1712, when he removed to a shop oppo- 
site Catherine-street, in the Strand. Tonson was 
succeeded in his shop by Osborne, whose name 
may be found in the " Dunciad." Osborne is per- 
haps best remembered for his well-known feud 
with Dr. Johnson. "It has been confidently re- 
lated, with many embellishments," says Boswell, 
" that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in 
his shop with a folio, and put his foot upon his 
neck. The simple truth I had from the Doctor 
himself — ' Sir, he was impertinent to me, and I 
beat him : but it was not in his shop, it was in my 
own chamber.' " Johnson says of Osborne that he 
was destitute of shame, without sense of any dis- 
grace but that of poverty : and that he combined 
the most lamentable ignorance with expertness in 
all the petty tricks of trade. 

Bacon, it will be remembered, resided in 
Gray's Inn ; some of his essays were dated from 



22 9 

his " chamber in Graie's Line." Here also dwelt 
the great statesman, Thomas Cromwell, afterwards 
Earl of Essex, who succeeded Wolsey in the favor 
of Ilenr}', to whom Shakespeare makes the Car- 
dinal address his famous apostrophe : — 

" Oh ! Cromwell, Cromwell, 
Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my klng^, He would not in my age 
Have left me naked to my enemies." 

The " great Lord Burgblej ;" Robert Cecil, Earl 
of Salisbury ; and Monk, Duke of Albemarle, 
among statesmen ; and Sir Philip Sydney ; Samuel 
Butler, author of " Hud i bras ; " Chapman, the 
translator of " Homer ;" and Murphy, the trans- 
lator of '• Tacitus," in literature ; were students of 
the society of Gray's Inn. 

Among the records of the Rolls' Court, near 
Chancery-lane, are the following documents : — Roll 
of record of grants on parchment made by Henry 
Vni. to Robert Tirwhite to alienate certain 
estates in Westmoreland and Cumberland, to 
" Rudolph (Ralph) Washington and James Wash- 
ington." This interesting document was first dis- 
covered, we believe, by Mr. Gardner Stow, of 
Troy, when on a visit in 1848. Dr. Sparks does 
not refer to it in his biography of Washington. 
There is another parchment in the Chapel -)f the 



230 

Kolls which will prove of especial interest to the 
American tourist — it is the original grant of Penn- 
sylvania, made by Charles II., to William Penn, 
(styled in the document Sir William Penn,) on 
account of " his conversion of the savages," and his 
father's public services. 

There are also copies of the coronation oaths, 
with the autographs, of several Kings and Queens 
of England, presenting curious specimens of chiro- 
graphy. 

Red Lion-street, so called from the famous 
"Red Lion Inne," built 1697, is in this part of 
Holborn. On the wall of the house at the south- 
west corner of this street is a block of wood in- 
serted with the date 1611. In Red Lion-square lived 
Mr. Osborn, and Rich, the American bookseller, 
and author of some bibliographical works. Hol- 
born is remarkable for its Black-Letter booksellers, 
those who deal in old books. Tliey form a distinct 
class, and present some curious idiosyncracies of 
character. Dacie was one of them ; he lived near 
Little Turnstile, and indulged the odd fancy of 
decorating his dingy shop with feminines for 
clerks. Some, we remember, were attractive for 
their personal appearance, and presented quite a 
relief to the huge mass of dusty old tomes w^hich 
crowded his book-shelves. It is said he paid the 



281 

highest price for beauty, and that his ratio was iu 
proportion to the personal charms of his fair as- 
sistants. In Great Queen-street lived " Old 
Nunn," as he was familiarly called by the trade. 
He had an immense collection of old books ; and 
he was himself of prodigious proportions, being 
somewhat after the Daniel Lambert style. Yet 
as though he had not enough of himself to carry, 
he was aoaustomed to cram his capacious pockets, 
when he went to })urchase books in Paternoster- 
row, to the extent of some ten or a dozen oc- 
tavos. 

While speaking of Great Queen-street, among 
its eminent inhabitants we might mention the 
names of the eccentric Herbert of Cherbury ; Sir 
Thomas Fairfax, the Parliamentary general ; and 
Hoole, the translator of Tasso. 

According to Walpole, Sir Godfrey Kneller 
and Dr. Radcliff lived in this street, in adjoining 
houses ; but Mr. Cunningham insists that Rad- 
clift' lived in Bow-street and Kneller in the Piaz- 
za, Covent Garden, and that their grounds joined 
each other. " Kneller," says Walpole, '' was fond 
of flowers, and had a fine collection. As there 
was great intimacy between liim and the [>hysi- 
cian, he permitted the latter to have a door into 
his garden ; but Kaddilf's servants gathering an<l 



2 82 

destroying the flowers, Kneller sent him word he 
must shut up the door.' RadclifF rejjlied, peevish- 
ly,— 'Tell him he may do anything with it but 
paint it.' 'And I,' answered Sir Godfrey, 'can 
take anything from him but physic.' " 

Taylor, the water poet, kept a tavern in 
Phoenix-alley, Long Acre : he died here in 1653, 
and was buried in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 

We deviate a little from our route to touch 
at Leicester-square. Two of England's greatest 
artists lived and died in Leicester-square — Sir 
Joshua Reynolds and "William Hogarth. The 
former resided in the fourth house from Sydney's- 
alley ; and the latter in one of those now called 
the Sabloniere Hotel. Goldsmith and Johnson 
were frequent visitors at the domicile of Sir 
Joshua ; Burke, Sir Isaac Newton, and John 
Hunter, the celebrated surgeon, lived here, the 
last named, next door to Hogarth. Leicester- 
square is the especial resort of all foreign refugees 
and continental exiles. Wyld's colossal Globe is 
now the great object of attraction in this locality. 

When the Polish patriot, Kosciusko, visited 
England, he lived in the house in which Hogarth 
had closed his existence. The house adjoining had 
the distinguished surgeon, John Hunter, for its in- 
mate, and here he formed his anatomical museum. 



283 

The glory of the neighborhood of Leicester- 
square is in St. Martin's-street, where the house is 
still remaining which was occupied by the great 
Newton. The turret or closet, covered with slate 
at the top, was the observatory of this celebrated 
man. The house was subsequently inhabited by 
Dr. Burney, author of the '' History of Music ;" 
and here his daughter Fanny wrote her novel of 
" Evelina." 

Dryden lived in Gerard-street for many years, 
dying at his house, in 1701. Edmund Burke was 
also a resident here. 

In the churchyard of St. Anne's, Soho, sleep 
tlie remains of the elegant essayist Ilazlitt. Here 
also is the monument of Theodore, King of Corsica, 
who died insolvent in the King's Bench Prison, in 
consequence of which he registered his kingdom of 
Corsica for the use of his creditors. 

" The grave, great teacher, to a level brings 
Heroes and beggars, galley-slaves and kings. 
But Theodore this moral lenrn'd ere dead ; 
Fate pour'd its lessons on his living head, 
Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread." 

In Prince's-streef, Soho, Colton wrote his 
"Lacon." His lodging was a meagrely furnished 
upper story ; and lie wrote this remarkable book 
with a stuin])y ]^en u])on the covers of old letters 



284 

and scraps of dirtj paper, after the fashion of 
another writer of celebrity — Ha^^dn, the author of 
" The Dictionary of Dates." 

We must now return to St. Giles's, a parish 
whose name is proverbially synonymous with 
wretchedness and crime. It is not, however, on 
this account that we invite the attention of the 
reader to this section of the metropolis, for happily 
the street surveyors have recently sought to rid 
this district of its odium. St. Giles's Church is an 
object of interest to the antiquary on account of 
the old tombs which surround it. The following 
eminent persons are buried there : — Chapman, the 
translator of " Homer ;" the eccentric Lord Her- 
bert, of Cherbury ; Shirley, the dramatist ; An- 
drew Marvell, the poet ; and Sir Eoger L'Estrange, 
the wit. Over the iron gateway is a bas-relief re- 
presenting the Day of Judgment; a curious relic 
of the former church, 1687. The next important 
object that claims our notice is the British Mu- 
seum, situated in Great Russell-street. This pro- 
digious structure was originated in 1763, in conse- 
quence of Sir Hans Sloane having bequeathed his 
valuable collection, which cost him £50,000, to the 
country. Other collections were united to it, as 
the Cottonian Library, the Harleian and the Arun- 
del MSS., Sir W. Hamilton's Etruscan Yases, the 



Townley Marbles, the Elgin Marbles, the Lans- 
downe MSS., Edwards's Library, Barney's Classi- 
cal Library, the Grenville Library, with other col- 
lectiuivs. Many large gifts and ])urchases besides 
have increased it, as the MSS. belonoino: to the 
Kings of England, and their printed books from 
Richard 11. to George 11. ; a collection of pam- 
phlets presented by George III., published between 
1640 and 1660, and various other donations. To 




these have been added, by the country, a fine li- 
brary, collected by George III. at an expense of 
£130,000, consisting of 63,000 volumes, which are 
in an apartment devoted to the purpose of their 
preservation. This library had been sold to Russia 
by George IV. The circumstance was discovered 
by the ministry just in time to prevent the em- 
barkation of the books. The money was paid for 
them in 1823, and they became the property of 



236 

the nation. This magnificent Museum is already 
become an immense depository of books, antiqui- 
ties, and natural history. The library consists of 
about 600,000 volumes, many of which are of 
great value and rarity. The oldest MS. is a copy 
of the Gospels in Latin, of the 7th century ; the 
celebrated Bible, said to have been written by 
Alcuin, for Charlemagne; Lady Jane Grey's 
Prayer Book ; also Queen Elizabeth's, curiously 
bound in a cover of her own embroidery; the 
original MS. of Pope's Homer, written on the backs 
of letters ! There are also over three hundred vo- 
lumes of Syriac MSS., obtained from Egyptian 
monasteries. Here is also the earliest printed book 
known — the Mazarine Bible, (temp. 1455.) 'Not 
among the least interesting of its valuable relics are 
the Nimroud Marbles, contributed by the indefati- 
gable Layard. The Man-Lion, and the Bull-Lion, 
with their expanded wings, are placed at the en- 
trance of the Hall, and present a most imposing 
spectacle. Tlie buildings have been altered from 
time to time ; the present is the work of Sir Kobert 
Smirke, and the massive portico, of which the en- 
graving gives a view, was finished as late as 1847. 
It is needless to speak of the vast collection, in 
these halls, of books and curiosities, — a catalogue 
of which makes almost a library. 



287 

In Blooinsbiuy-square died Baxter the divine ; 
Sir Ilans Sloane resided at the corner of South- 
ampton-street, leading from the square; and at the 
north-east corner lived the great Lord Mansfield. 
His house was destroyed in the riots of ITSO. At 
1^0. 6 lived Disraeli ; here he composed his " Curi- 
osities of Literature." Steele and Akinside were 
also residents of Bloomsbury-square. 

In Newman-street, Oxford-street, the following 
artists once resided : Banks, the sculptor, at N'o. 5 ; 
Bacon, the sculptor, at 'No. IT ; Benjamin "West, at 
No. 14, where he died in 1820 ; and Stothard, at 
No. 28, who lived there during the last fortj-four 
years of his life, which terminated in 1834. 

At Argyll House, Argyll-street, lived the good 
Lord Lyttleton ; and here, at No. 30, Madame de 
Stael held her celebrated levees. At No. 8 Argyll- 
place lived North cote, the painter; here he held his 
conversations with Ilazlitt, and here he died in 1831. 

Crossing Begent-strcet, renowned for its archi- 
tectural attractions, we enter Conduit-street, in 
which is a small antique chapel, built of wood, by 
James IL, for private mass. It was erected on 
wheels, for the purpose of accompanying that 
prince when he attended his army ; the present 
building is, however, of brick, and permanently 
fixed. Sir Astley Cooper, the celebrated surgeon. 



288 

lived in this street, opposite George-street. 'No. 50 
was f(>rmerlj the establishment of Colburn, the dis- 
tinguished publisher ; it has since been for many 
years that of its present occupants, Messrs. Saun- 
dei's and Otley. Colburn's publishing house is re- 
moved to Great Marlborongh-street ; Bentley's is 
in IS'ew-Burlington-street. In George-street, Hano- 
ver-square, lived Lord Chancellor Cowper ; Lady 
Mary Wortley Montague ; Pennant, the historian 
of London ; and Copley, the American painter, 
and father of Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst ; and on 
the opposite side Prince Talleyrand. 

St. George's Church, Hanover-square, has been 
the scene of most of the distinguished marriages in 
high life; it is considered the most fashionable 
church in London. In the burial-ground on the 
road to Bayswater, belonging to this parish, Lau- 
rence Sterne, the author of " Tristram Shandy" and 
the " Sentimental Journey," is buried. Sterne 
died in Old Bond-street. At Ko. 24 lived Sir 
Thomas Lawrence ; and at No. 141 New Bond-street 
lived IS'elson. At Long's Hotel Lord Byron was 
accustomed to lodge when in London. Gibbon re- 
sided in Bond-street when he composed his " His- 
tory of Pome," but we have not been able to ascer- 
tain the precise house. At I^o. 11 in Berkeley- 
square died Horace Walpole. 



289 

In Brooke street, Grosvenor-sqnare, once lived 
Ilandel — the house is at IS'o. 57, on the south of 
Bond-street. Here is Mivart's Hotel, the usual 
residence of foreign potentates. 

In Cavendish-square lived George Romney, 
the painter, in the house No. 32, subsequently oc- 
cupied by Sir Martin Archer Shee. 

Returning to Great Portland-street, Oxford- 
street, we pause to note the house l^o. 40, once 
occupied by the author of " Seward's Anecdotes ;" 
No. 47, where Boswell breathed his last ; and No. 
91, where Yon Weber, the composer of " Der 
Freischutz," died. This house was also the resi- 
dence of Sir George Smart. 

The vast area extending northward, which com- 
prises buildings of comparatively recent date, we 
shall pass over. The Colosseum, however, with 
its imposing dome, claims a short passing notice. 
It was built originally for Horner's grand pano- 
ramic view of London, taken from the summit of 
St. Paul's — perhaps one of the most gigantic 
works of art, and certainly the most triumphant, 
ever achieved. It occupies no less than forty-six 
thousand square feet of canvas. This great picture 
presents London in all its immensity of streets, 
lanes, and alleys ; its colossal buildings, monu- 
ments and churches ; with its famous river mean- 



2 40 

dering through the picture. In the centre of the 
rotunda, concealed bj tasteful draperies, re- 
sembling a tent, is the Elizabethan " ascending 
room," for the conveyance of visitors, by means 
of machinery, to the point for viewing the pano- 
ramic picture of London. For those by whom it 
may be preferred there is a spiral staircase for the 
same purpose. At night a painting, illuminated 
in a peculiar manner, and with astonishing effect, 
is exhibited here. This is, in fact, a panoramic 
view of London by moonlight : in which are 
beheld the flitting of the clouds, the glittering 
of the stars, with other atmospheric changes — 
the lighting of the streets, squares and bridges, 
&c. The effect is heightened by snatches of 
street music, the striking and chiming of church 
clocks, and other sounds of night. The Coli- 
seum includes other buildings devoted to conser- 
vatories, containing exotics from all parts of the 
world. It has also some models and statuary; a 
series of model pictures of Swiss cottages, classic 
ruins, &c. &c. 

Before referring to the Regent's Park, we 
might mention, for the information of his admirers, 
that Charles Dickens has long occupied the house 
'No. 1 Devonshire Terrace. 



41 



C II A P T E K XII. 

The Zoological Gardens — Royal Botanical Gardens, Regent's Park — Madame 
Tufsaud's Exhibition — Gore House — Kensington Gardens and Palace — 
Holland House — Chelsea Hospital and Church — Battersea — Putney — 
Fulham, and its Literary Celebrities — Chiswick House — Horticultural 
Gardens— Kew Church— Sion House— Isleworth Church— Richmond 
Park and Church — Strawberry Hill — Hampton Court Palace — Bushy 
Park — Eton College — St. George's Chapel — Windsor Castle — Conclusion 



x-% 






the Zoological Gardens, 
in JRegent's Park, every 
visitor to the Metropo- 
lis will of conrse pay 
a visit. It is a most 
rhtful 



^ 



'-y'J^M^^ amusing and deli 
I Q-^'S^iM^ resort. The groun 
7 ,"*^^^^ laid out with exc 



ounds are 



exquisite 
"* ^/ -^s^^^i:! ildf^^'*' taste, and those who 

have any fondness for natural history will here 
find a world of attractive interest. The collection 
of animals, birds, and reptiles, is numerous. 
Among the animals are the Polar bear, the rhino- 
ceros, the giraffe, and the elephant. The giraffes 
and rattle-snakes are very rare and fine, but tho 
attractions of the Gardens for the last year and a 
half have been the hippopotamus, presented by 

n 



242 

the Yiceroy of Egypt, and the uran utan from 
Singapore. The collection of living snakes is the 
largest ever formed in Europe. The recent attrac- 
tion is a collection of stuffed humming birds, the 
property of Mr. Gould, author of the " Birds of 
Europe," " Birds of Australia," &c. ; allowed by 
ornithologists to be the best in the world. It con- 
sists of about two thousand specimens of three hun- 
dred species, arranged in upwards of forty glass 
cases. This beautiful establishment cost some- 
thing like £200,000. 

The Royal Botanic Gardens are situated in the 
Inner Circle, Eegent's Park, and abound with or- 
namental trees, and are laid out with great taste. 

Madame Tussaud's, in Baker-street, Portman- 
square, has long been renowned for its splendid 
collection of wax-work figures. It is distributed 
through several elegantly decorated apartments. 
The Hall of Kings is especially worth jT of note ; it 
contains full-length figures of Anne Boleyn and 
Catherine Parr, with splendid jewellery and cos- 
tumes. In addition to the Ilall of Kings are two 
new I^apoleon Rooms, containing the golden shrine, 
the camp-bed on which ]S"apoleon died, the full- 
length portrait of the Emperor by Le Fevre, and 
that of the Empress Maria Louisa by Baron Ge- 
rard. 



2-io 

AVe must not omit to mention Gore House ; and 
with this we complete our tour of the Capital. 
This mansion, which was formerly occupied by the 
Countess of Blessington, and which witnessed her 
splendid literary gatherings, is now called " Soyer's 
Symposium." This superb establishment is fitted 
up in magnificent style, and is adorned w4th foun- 
tains, statues, and grottos. It was originated for 
the purpose of furnishing, on a grand scale, a suite 
of cosmopolitan dining-rooms, where visitors to the 
Crystal Palace from all quarters of the globe might 
severally indulge their tastes. 

Although we have thus rapidly passed over the 
area of the City, and the countless stately streets 
of the " West End," we are yet reluctant to con- 
clude our journey, since the margin of the Thames 
in this vicinity, garnished with pleasant memories, 
presents such strong attractions to tempt us onward. 
And first of Kensington Palace — within its walls 
expired William and Mary, Queen Anne, and 
George XL Here resided Queen Caroline, and also 
the late Duke of Kent, father of Queen Victoria. 

Her present Majesty was born in it, (1819,) and 
here (1837) she held her first Council. The Duke 
of Sussex, son of George III., lived, died, and 
had his fine library in this Palace. The Orangery, 
a fine detached edifice, was built by Wren. The 



244 

royal collection of pictures (long famous in cata- 
logues, and still known as the Kensington Collec- 
tion to the readers of Walpole,) has, for the most 
part, been removed to other palaces. 

Kensington House, near the palace gates, has 
been successively occupied by Elphinstone, the 
translator of Martial ; and Mrs. Inchbald, the au- 
thor of "The Simple Story." She died here, and 
is buried in the adjoining church of St. Mary's. 
In the same churchyard are monuments to the 
memory of James Mill, the historian ; and Jortin, 
the author of " The Life of Erasmus." 

Sir Isaac I^ewton died in Pitt's Buildings, 
Kensington, whither he had gone for the benefit of 
his health. In 'No. 24 Lower Phillimore Place, 
near the second milestone from Hyde Park Cor- 
ner, "Wilkie painted his " Chelsea Pensioners," his 
" Reading of the Will," his '' Distraining for Rent," 
and his " Blind Man's Buff." His last residence 
was in Yicarage-place, at the head of Church-lane ; 
and here he took leave of his friends before his 
visit to the Holy Land, whence he never returned. 

Kensington Gardens are so world renowned for 
their broad umbrageous avenues, serving as fas- 
hionable promenades, that it is scarcely necessary 
to name them, for the poets have celebrated them 
in song. 



245 

Holland House, an ancient and noble mansion, 
erected in the reign of James I., merits a passing 
notice. 

The Royal Hospital at Chelsea provides an 
asylum for disabled and superannuated soldiers 
This spacious building, erected by "Wren, cost 
£150,000. It accommodates between five and six 
thousand in and out pensioners, at a cost of about 
one million sterling. 

In the Chapel are preserved the eagles of Napo- 
leon, captured at Barossa, Talavera, and Waterloo. 
In the Dining Hall remain the fragments of the 
standards won at Blenheim from Louis XIV., 
besides flags of all nations down to the Chinese, 
with the Dragon banners. 

In Chelsea resided Lord Shaftsbury, author of 
" The Characteristics ;" Sir Bobert TValpole ; Sir 
Richard Steele ; Dr. Mead ; Addison ; Locke ; Dr. 
Smollett; and Arbuthnot. In Beaufort House, 
Chelsea, at the north end of Beaufort-row, resided 
Sir Thomas More. It was at this house he was 
visited by Erasmus. 

Chelsea Church is worthy of a visit, on account 
of the monument of Sir Thomas More, with an in- 
scription from his own pen. There is also the 
monument of Sir Hans Sloane. Among otlier 
eminent persons buried at Chelsea were Shadwell, 



246 

tlie poet laureate; Cipriani, the painter; Boyer, 
author of the French Dictionary ; Woodfall, the 
printer ; and Millar, the bookseller, who preceded- 
Cadell and Co. in the Strand. 

The opposite town of Battersea is memorable 
as having been the place of the birth and death of 
Bolingbrokfe. The monument in Battersea Church 
erected to his memory is the work of Roubilliac. 

Putney was the birth-place of Cromwell, Earl 
of Essex. This was battle-ground in the time of 
the Commonwealth. Here Cromwell established 
his head-quarters. Gibbon, the historian, was born 
here; and at the Bowling-green House, on the 
Heath, Pitt breathed his last, on the 23rd Janu- 
ary, 1809. Passing the pleasant foot-paths of this 
sequestered spot, we reach Fulham. Fulham 
Palace is adorned with portraits of Bishops Laud, 
King, Juxon, Sheldon, Compton, Sherlock, and 
Lowth. At Parson's Green lived Richardson, 
the novelist ; here he wrote " Clarissa Harlowe," 
and other works. Here also resided Sir Thomas 
Bodley, founder of the library at Oxford, bear- 
ing his name ; and also, for a time, the great 
Lord Bacon. This vicinity has long been the 
chosen retreat of men of letters ; here, snugly en- 
sconced, lived the admirable humorist Theodore 
Hook ; and in earlier times, Tonson and Linton, 



247 

the publishers. At Hammersmith Thomson re- 
sided for a time; and here, at the Dove CoiTee 
House, he composed part of his "Seasons." Near 
the Suspension Bridge, a little above Hammer- 
smith, is Chiswick. This ground is memorable as 
the scene of an action between Prince Iwupert and 
the Earl of Essex ; but the attractions of Chiswick 
are the superb mansion of the Duke of Devonshire, 
and the Gardens of the Horticultural Society. At 
Chiswick House, the great statesmen Fox and Can- 
ning breathed their last. The far-famed grounds 
of Chiswick House, as well as tlie palatiat- edifice 
itself, are very magnificent. Both are richly deco- 
rated with gems of art, which have claimed the ad- 
miration of the connoisseur. The Horticultural 
Gardens contain thirty-four acres, and are laid out 
in the most imposing style. In the churchyard is 
a monument to the great painter Hogarth. The 
inscription upon the tomb is from the pen of 
Garrick : — 

"Farewell, great painter of mankind, 
Who reached the noblest point of art; 
Whose pictured morals charm the mind; 
And throufl^h the eye correct the heart. 
If genius fire thee, reader, stay ; 
If nature move thee, drop a tear ; 
If neither touch thee, turn away. 
For Hoijarth's honored 5'2st lies here!** 



250 

Holland House possesses a choice and extensive 
library. The surrounding park includes about 
three hundred acres, of which sixty-three are laid 
out as pleasure-grounds. Over a rural seat the fol- 
lowing couplet was inscribed by the late Lord Hol- 
land : — 

" Here Rogers sat ; and here forever dwell 
With me those ' Pleasures' that he sang so well." 

Many historical incidents are connected with 
Holland House during the reign of Charles I. It 
will be remembered that Addison became possessed 
of Holland House by marriage, and it was here he 
wrote and died. 

Here in the well remembered lines, — 

" He taught us how to live ; and, oh ! too high 
A price for knowledge, taught us how to die ! " 

In Kew Churchyard is buried Gainsborough, 
the artist. By his express desire, his name only 
was cut on the gravestone. Shortly before he ex- 
pired, he exclaimed, " We are all going to heaven, 
and Yandyke is of the company." At Brentford 
Church, Tooke, author of the " Diversions of Pur- 
ley,'" officiated for a time. Sion House, one of the 
seats of the Duke of l^orthumberland, presents a 
noble aspect from the river. It is richly endowed 
with a library and antique statues, and paintings 



251 

by Lely, V'andyke, and others. Sion House is rife 
with historic associations, and is of remote origin. 
Katherine Howard was once imprisoned here, and 
it was here, also, the corpse of Henry VHL, whose 
funeral procession is said to have exceeded in mag- 
nificence any ever seen in England before or since, 
rested a night on its way to Windsor. It was then 
a nunnery. Isle worth, with its moss-grown church 
tower, is also an attractive object from the Thames. 
Here Lord Baltimore, the original grantee of Mary- 
land, resided. Eichmond, on the Thair.es, is a 
classic spot. Henry YII. held a grand tourna- 
ment at his manor of Richmond in 1492, and here 
also he died in 1509. The Emperor Charles Y., of 
Germany, lodged for a season at Riclimond, m 1523. 
Queen Elizabeth was a. prisoner at Richmond Pa- 
lace during the reign of her sister Mary, and after 
she ascended the throne it became her fiivorite 
residence ; she also ended her days here, 1603. 
Richmond Church contains a monmVient to Dr. 
Moore, author of " Zeluco ;" he was father of the 
brave Sir John Moore ; here, also, is the tomb of 
Thomson, the poet of the " Seasons." The beautiful 
lines of Collins to his memory will occur to the 
reader : — 

" In yonder ^nve a Druid lies, 

Where slowly steals the winding wave ; 



253 

The year's best sweets shall duteous rise 
To deck its poet's sylvan grave." 

The grave of Thomson is at the west end of the 
north aisle of the church. Collins resided at Eich- 
mond, and composed some of his poems there. 

The beautiful tablet to the memory of Kean, 
the great tragedian, is near that of Thomson. 

Richmond Park is eight miles in circumfe- 
rence, and abounds with magnificent trees. All 
that remains of the old Palace of Sheen is the 
west side of the green, with an arched gateway. 
Richmond was formerly called " Sheen," a Saxon 
word for resplendent, and well it deserves the 
name, for the view from Richmond Hill is one 
of surpassing beauty. Pope's tomb will, of course, 
be sought out at Twickenham Church. About 
a mile from Twickenham is Strawberry Hill, the 
renowned residence of Horace Walpole. This 
extraordinary letter-writer has told his own life 
story so minutely that we need not rehearse it 
here. He had a private printing-press of his own, 
the literary prints of which are still cherished with 
avidity by the bibliomaniacs. 

Hampton Court Palace abounds with interest- 
ing associations, and it is enriched with some of 
the costliest works of art. 

Tn that magnificent structure are the Cartoons of 



254 

Raphael and the beauties of Charles II.'s dissolute 
Court The palace is comparatively a modem 
work. It was here that the swelling pride of the 
haughty Wolsey was displayed. In the most 
palmy days of his influence — before the passions 
of his master had developed the fierceness of his 
will, and the growing tyrant " was young and 
lusty, disposed all to mirth and pleasure, and to 
follow his desire and appetite " — he made a bar- 
gain with the Prior of St. John for the manor of 
Hampton Court. This was in the year 1515. The 
Lord Archbishop of York very soon changed the 
character of the place. The poor manor-house 
was swept away ; the rank meadows which skirted 
the Thames were transformed into curious knotted 
gardens ; a great palace arose, as if by magic, 
at the bidding of the profuse and tasteful Cardi- 
nal ; and here, within two years of his purchase 
of the place, did he surround himself with the 
pomp of kings, and maintain a state which even 
the most absolute king had rarely practised. 

Hampton Court stands on the north bank of 
the Thames, about twelve miles from London, and 
is less imposing, compared with some of the 
other royal abodes. About the middle of the 
thirteenith century, the manor of Hampton was 
vested in the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem ; 



2 55 

and in the early part of the reign of Henry YIIl., 
Cardinal AYolsey became its lessee. 

The palace, as erectcv. by Wolsoy, consisted 
of five conrts, of which onl}' two now remain, 
and afford an interesting specimen oi the ancient 
style of ecclesiastical building. The third was 
erected by William III., and constitutes the pre- 
sent state apartments. Passing under the battle- 
mented gateway, with turrets on each side, we 
enter the mid'lle court ; on the right we have the 
entire length of Cardinal AYolsey's Hall, and on 
the lefk there is a colonnade of the Ionic order, de- 
signed by Sir Christopher Wren, which, however, 
does not harmonise with the ancient buildings 
around. The third court is a quadrangle, with a 
fountain in the centre, and consists chiefly of 
buildings erected by Wren. 

On entering the Grand Chamber the attention 
is at once arrested by the various devices in which 
muskets, swords, and pistols, sufficient for the 
erpiipment of one thousand men, are disposed on 
the walls. The paintings are in cliaracter with 
the rooms; they consist of bix portraits of English 
admirals, by Kneller, and several battle-pieces, in 
8ome (»f which great vigor is displayed. But the 
most conspicuous is one of gigantic dimensions, 
Queen Elizabeth's porter, who is said to have been 



256 

The Queen's Gallery, eighty feet in length, 
contains an extensive collection of curious portraits. 
The Elizabethan group, representing Her Majesty 
at different periods of her life, first engages the 
attention. It consists of portraits of Elizabeth 
when an infant ; at twelve years of age ; in the 
meridian of life ; and in her latter days. There is 
also a full-length of the Queen, attired in a fan- 
tastic Persian dress, and represented as in a forest. 
This room contains several Scripture pieces; but 
by far the greater number of the collection are 
portraits of eminent persons. Mary, Queen of 
Scots ; Lord Darnley ; James the First and Se- 
cond ; Queen Mary ; Anne, of Denmark ; Francis 
I., of France; Erasmus; and the "admirable Crich- 
ton," are among the most conspicuous. Passing 
through several small rooms we enter the Cartoon 
Gallery, in which are displayed those treasured 
triumphs of the genius of Raffaelle, the " prince of 
painters." The drawings were originally intended 
as patterns for tapestry to decorate the walls of the 
Papal chapel, and were executed by order of Leo 
X. During the production of the tapestry at Arras, 
the Cartoons were exposed to no small danger 
from the recklessness of the artisans, who for their 
own convenience cut them up into small slips. It 
is somewhat singular that they remained in this 
state for an entire century, although the tapes- 



tries which were woven from them were held in 
high admiration, and it was left for Rubens to 
rescue them from oblivion. Havhig directed the 
attention of Charles I. to their ruinous condition, 
liis Majesty purcliased the seven n(>w in Hampton 
Court, intending to have tapestries woven from 
them. They were, however, neglected and compa- 
ratively unknown, until William HI. directed the 
slips to be joined together, and erected the present 
spacious gallery for these unequalled w^orks of art. 
They consist entirely of scenes in Scripture history. 

x\mong otlier historical events connected with 
this edifice, we might mention the following : — Ed- 
ward VI. was born here. In 15^1:3, the nuptial cere- 
monies of Henry YHI. and his last wife. Lady Ca- 
therine Parr, were celebrated at this Palace. The 
Protector Somerset, Queen Mary and Philip, Queen 
Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., Cromwell, James 
H., William an<l ^lary, William III., and George II. 
and his Queen, at different times have resided at 
Hampton Court. 

TJie superb arcades and gardens of Hampton 
Court somewhat resemble those of St. Cloud. 
Tlieir broad avenues, crystal fountains, rich par- 
terres, and maje>tic trees, combine together wnth 
the riciiest effect. We have not yet forgot the 
luscious graj>e>, the largest in Europe, which iiang 



258 

in such thick cl asters from the celebrated Ham- 
burgh vine, and which are reserved for the delicate 
palate of royalty. Garrick's Yilla stands on the 
margin of the Thames, in close proximity. There 
are other spots of interest worthy of enumeration, 
but we shall simply name them : — Claremont, 
which owed its origin to the eccentric Sir John 
Yanbrugh; Esher, noted for its Wolsey's Tower; 
Walton, a spot interesting alike to the antiquary and 
the lover of the picturesque ; and Chertsey, the 
birth-place of Cowley, the poet. Beautiful also is 
Bushy Park, with its magnificent chesnut avenue, a 
mile long, one of the noblest sights to be seen 
around London. 

Of the numerous objects of interest with which 
the banks of the Thames are so thickly studded, 
none are of such surpassing grandeur and regal 
magnificence as "Windsor Castle, with its adjacent 
chapel of St. George, and Eton College. This 
massive and stately pile is richly stored with 
poetic associations, and venerable for its antiquity, 
it having proudly defied the ravages of Time for 
some eight centuries. Here kings were born ; here 
they kept royal state amid the blaze of fashion and 
luxurious indulgence ; and here, in the adjoining 
mausDleum, they were buried. Here deeds of 
chiviiry and high renown, that shine on us from 



260 

ancient days, were enacted ; and it is here the most 
exemplary of England's monarchs still prefers to 
hold her suburban residence. This brave old for- 
tress, unlike the Tower of London, with its tiark 
records of crime, is rife with pleasant memories. 
'Not only is the edifice itself, with its gigantic 
towers, its broad bastions, and its kingly halls, sa- 
cred with incident and story, but Shakespeare has 
also rendered classical the very ground on which 
it stands. 

"Windsor Forest, with its magnificent old oaks, 
and its richly variegated scenery, of " upland, 
lawn, and stream," has afforded a fruitful theme for 
the pens of Gray and the author of " The Seasons ;" 
and Pope, it will be remembered, has felicitously 
pictured forth its changeful beauties. As far back 
as the days of the Saxons we have records of a 
palatial residence at Old Windsor, or as its name 
then was, Windleshora, so called from the wind- 
ings of the Thames in its vicinity. William the' 
l^orman built some portions of the Castle, which, 
until the time of Richard I., seems ever to have 
been the peaceful abode of royalty. During the 
civil wars, of which Windsor was a principal scene, 
the Castle became the most important military 
establishment in the kingdom. The sanguinary 
struggles connected with the signing of Magna 



261 

Cbarta are familiar to the reader. The b'rth olf 
Edward III., which took place at Windsor, forms 
another epoch in its history — that prince having 
reconstructed the greater part of the castle, and 
very largely extended it. William of Wykeham 
was the architect, with the liberal salary of a shil- 
ling a day. It is said he had six hundred work- 
men employed on the building, at the rate of one 
penny. It was here Eichard II. heard the appeal 
of high treason, brought by the Duke of Lancaster 
against Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, which resulted 
in the former becoming Henry IV. It was here 
the Earl of Surrey, imprisoned for the high crime 
of eating flesh in Lent, beguiled his solitude with 
his muse ; and here was the last prison of that un- 
fortunate monarch, Charles I. In Windsor Castle 
also resided the haughty Elizabeth ; and along its 
terrace might have been seen, in the days of the 
Commonwealth, the stern figure of the lion-hearted 
Cromwell. It was the residence of Henry VII., 
and the prison of James I. of Scotland. It is in- 
debted for most of its modern splendor to the 
luxurious taste and prodigal expenditure of George 
IV., who obtained from the House of C-ommons 
the sum of £300,000 for the purpose. The suites 
of royal apartments at present in use by the Queen 
are superb in the extreme, especially the state draw- 



2 63 

ing rooms, in which are nine pictures by Zucca- 
relli; and St. George's Hall — a vast a2)artinent, in 
whicli the state banquets arc given. 

The h)ng walk, extending about three miles in 
a direct line to tlie Palace, presents the finest vista 
of its kind in the world. It extends from the 
grand entrance of the Castle, to the top of a com- 
manding hill in the Great Park, which affords a 
panoramic view of enchanting beauty, including 
many places memorable in history. On the right 
is the Thames, seen beyond Charter Island, and 
the plain of Runnymede, where the Barons extorted 
Magna Charta, whilst in the hazy distance are the 
rising eminences of Harrow and Ilampstead. On 
the summit of this hill stands the equestrian statue 
of George III. ^ear the avenue called Queen 
Elizabeth's Walk, tradition still points out a wi- 
thered tree as the identical oak of *' Ilerne the 
Hunter," who, as the tale goes, 

" Sometimes a keoper here in Windsor Forest, 
Doth all the winter time, at still midnij^ht, 
Walk round the o.ik, with urcat nirrfred horns." 

St. George's Chapel presents :i beautiful speci- 
men of Gothic ai'chitecture of different periods. 
The interior is very magnificent. Its groined roof 
and splendid stained glass windows, with the pen- 
dant banners of the Knights of the Garter, combine 



2 64 

together to present an effect of mar veil oi s beauty. 
Beneath the chapel is the burial-place of several 
monarchs — of Edward lY., Henry YIII., Jane 
Seymour., Charles I., the Princess Charlotte of 
Wales, George III. and his Queen, George lY., 
"William lY. and his Queen, and others. 

The classic groves of Eton here burst upon the 
view. The Royal College of Eton consists of 
two quadrangular buildings of the Tudor style of 
art. It was founded by Henry YI. in 1440. The 
Chapel is a Gothic structure, somewhat resembling 
that of King's College, Cambridge. Its Library is 
one of the best and most extensive in England. 
Many literary celebrities have emanated from Eton 
College. Slough, about a mile from Eton, was the 
residence of Herschel, the astronomer ; and in addi- 
tion to Yirginia Water, the largest artificial lake in 
the United Kingdom, we may mention Stoke Pogis, 
the classic ground of the poet Gray. 

Here we reach the terminus of our pleasant per- 
ambulatory tour, and conclude our colloquial com- 
ments on the notabilia of London and its suburbs, 
not, however, without the consciousness that these 
brief notes by the way might have been advan- 
tageously extended, for while there are ponderous 
tomes of learned lore touching the subject, which 
we leave to the patient scrutiny of the antiquary, 



265 

there is yet much of eminent interest that has been 
garnered by more modern writers, to which wo 
have scarcely alluded. Those who desire fuller 
details, therefore, we refer to the admirable volumes 
of Cunningham, Knight, and Mackay, to whose 
collections, indeed, we have been indebted in no 
small measure for whatever of interest may attach 
to the foregoing chapters. Here, then, we bid adieu 
to the noble city —alike fragrant with memories of 
the past, and affluent in all that constitutes its 
present greatness and splendor. 

" August and glorious City ! Thy renown 
Fills with heroic deeds of high emprise 
The lengthened records of the stroain of Time. 
Great Citadel of Power ! Thy potent sway 
Spreads the wide world : thy wit and wealth, 
Vast, opulent, shed their refulgent light 
O'er all the earth ; and beautify with peace 
And gentle charities all human kiqd. 
No more may war disturb thy h^dcyon reign, 
But happy homos of industry repay 
Thy well requited toils, and benisons 
From Heaven augnient thy treasury anew 
With spuils of genius to enrich mank nd ! " 



APPENDIX 



On arriving at the British Cnpitnl 
Ihr first qupotion that suggests itself 
to the traveller is where to sleep and 
to dine. To meet this inquiry the 
fdllowing list of Hotels is subjoined. 
Those who wish to mingle with the 
wealthier classes, and to whom ex- 
pen»e is no object, will find the be^t 
accommodations at the Clarendon, in 
New Bond-street ; Mivart's, in Brook- 
street; and Grillon's, St. George, in 
Albcmarle-street ; Fenton's, Chris- 
tie's, and Ellis's, in St. James's street ; 
and the numerous hotels in Jermyn- 
etreet ; Long's and the Blenheim, in 
Bond-ftreet ; the Burlington and 
Queen's, in Cork-stieet, may saf'-iy 
be recommended as good Family Ho- 
tels. Here the first company always 
resort, and the terras are accordingly 
high. The Gloucester and Hatchett's, 
in riccadill}', and Limmcr's, in Con- 
duit-street, are the resort chietly of 
sporting gentlemen. The less ex- 
pensive hot«;l8 WR may mention as 
central houses, Richardson's, the Ta- 
vistock, the New and Old Hummums, 
Bedford, and I'inzza, in Covent Gar- 
den. Those who wish to be iLidway 
between the City and the West Knd 
would do well to put up at the Union, 
In Cockspur-strect, or Morley's, at 
Charing Cross. The London Tavern, 
tiishopsgate-street, and the Albion 
Tavern, in Aldersgate-street, both 
very famous for largo public or pri- 
vate dinners. The Bridge House 
Hotel, London Bridge ; Gerard's Hall 
Inn, Bread-street ; the Bull and 
Mouth, and the Castle and Falcon, 
St. Martin-le Grand, may be recom- 
mended ; besides which, in St. Paul's 
Churchyard and its district, are many 
good and respectable hotels. 

There are a profusion of dining- 
rooms or chop-houses — numbering 
about six hundred, and nearly one 
thousand cottee houses, in the various 



sections of the City, besides iiumerou" 
divans and reading-rooms. Piivate 
boarding-houses are also easily to be 
found in the central and western 
parts of London, at prices ranging 
from one to four or five guineas a 
week, and some at half a guinea for n 
single person. 

Many of tlie dining-houses of the 
City are famous for some particular 
dish : thus, the Ship and Turtle, in 
Leadenhall-street, for its turtle ; 
"Joe's," iu Finch-lane, Cornhill, for 
steaks, served on metal plates ; the 
" Cock," the " Rainbow," •' Dick's," 
and " Dr. Johnson's 'J'avern," Fleet- 
street, for steaks, and chops, and 
" snipe kidneys," etc. 

" The stranger who wishes to see 
City feasting in all its glory, " says 
Cunningham, "should procure an in- 
vitation to (jne of the banquets of 
some of the (Mty Companies in their 
own halls. The Goldsmiths' dinners, 
given in their magnificent hall, behind 
the General Post Office, exhibit a 
grand display of gold plate. Some 
of the Companies, again, the Fish- 
mongers, Merchant Tailors, &c., are 
famous for their cookery, and the 
anti(|ue character of their bills of fare 
— still maintaining the baron of beef, 
the boar's head, the swan, the crane, 
the rutf, and many other delicacies of 
the days of Queen Elizabeth. After 
these dinners 'the loving cup ' goes 
I round. In the Carpenters' Company, 
I the new mai<ters and wardens aie 
crowned with silver caps at their 
I feast; at the Clothworkers, a grand 

f)roces3ion enters after dinner. Siini- 
ar customs prevail at other of the 
I great Companies' banquets, and all the 

dinners are first-rate." 
' The Dock Tavern, at Blackwall. is 
where the celebrated whit»'-bfiit din- 
ners are given ; there arc others also 
I at (Jreenwich, where epicures in this 



268 



APPENDIX. 



famous dish assemble to regale their 
palate. 

The principal theatres and places 
of amusement are as follows : — 

The Italian Opera, Hay market — 
the largest with one exception, we 
believe, in the world ; Covent Garden 
Theatre, now devoted to the Italian 
Opera ; Drury-lane Theatre, (English 
Opera) ; the Ilaymarket Theatre, 
(British Drama, vaudeville, &c.) ; the 
Lyceum, or English Opera, in the 
Strand, near the Adelphi; the Prin- 
cess's, Oxford-stieet ; St. James's 
Theatre, (French Plays) ; the Adel- 
phi, near Southampton-street, Strand, 
(Melo-drama and Farce) ; Sadler's 
Wells, Islington ; Astley's Amphi- 
theatre, (Horsemanship, «fec.); the 
Diorama, Regent's Park ; the Cyclo- 
rama, Albany-street, Regent's Park ; 
the Colosseum, Regent's Park ; the 
Oriental Diorama, King-street, St. 
James's ; the Egyptian Hall, Picca- 
dilly ; Gallery of Illustration, Regent- 
street, (the Overland Route to India) ; 
the Linwood Gallery, Leicesterr 
square ; Wyld's Great Globe, Leices- 
ter-square ; Burfoid's Panorama, in 
the same place ; the Panorama, Re- 
gent-street, (moving pictures of Con- 
stantinople) ; the Polytechnic Insti- 
tution, Regent-street, (curious ma- 
chinery) ; the Polyorama, adjoining ; 
the Chinese collection, Albert Gate, 
Hyde Park ; Catlin's Indian Gal- 
lery, Waterloo Place ; Madame Tus- 
saud's Waxworks, Baker-street, Port- 
man-square ; Cremorne Gardens, 
Chelsea ; Vauxhall Gardens, near 
Vauxhall-bridge ; Surrey Zoological 
Gardens ; and the Zoological Gar- 
dens, Regent's Park. 

The Bazaars are ns annexed : — 

Burlington Arcade and Bazaar, Pic- 
cadilly, adjoining Burlington House ; 
Lowther Arcade, extending from 
West Strand to St. Martin's Church ; 
Soho Bazaar, Soho-square, in the 
north-west comer ; Exeter Change 
Arcade, Brydges-street, Strand ; Royal 
Bazaar, New Oxford-street ; Pantech- 
nicon, Belgrave-square ; Pantheon Ba- 
zaar, Oxford-street, once the largest 
of the London theatres. In addition 
to the foregoing there are the several 
Picture Galleries ; the National Gal- 
lery, Trafalgar-square ; Vernon Gal- 
lery, Marlborough House; Society of 
British Artists, Snftblk-street, Charing 



Cross. The two societies of Painters 
in Water Colors, Pall Mall-east ; the 
National Institution of the Fine Arts, 
Regent street, opposite the Polytech- 
nic ; the Exhibition of the Pictures of 
all the schools of Europe, Lichfield 
House, St. James's-squaie ; Paintings 
at the Royal Academy ; besides the 
private collections of the Queen and 
many of the nobility, which may be 
viewed on application. The famous 
collection of pictures by the old mas- 
ters, in Dulwich Gallery ; Raphael's 
Cartoons, at Hampton Court ; and the 
Vandyck Pictures, at Windsor, as 
well as the splendid galleries of the 
Dukes of Devonshire, Sutherland, 
and Northumberland, and Earls Gros- 
venor and Spencer, which shovild not 
be overlooked. 

The lover of art, also, will not fail 
to inspect the various statues and 
monuments that grace the numerous 
squares of the City ; or the lover of 
literature and science neglect to pay 
a visit to the London University, in 
Gower-street, Westminster School, 
Draw's Yard, Westminster, or the 
various learned societies — a Ust of 
which we annex : — 

The Royal Institution of Great Bri- 
tain, Albemarle-street ; the Society of 
Antiquaries, Somerset House ; the 
Royal Society of Literature, St. Mar- 
tin's Place ; the Museum of Practical 
Geology, Jermyn-street ; the Entomo- 
logical Museum, Old Bond-street ; the 
Geographical Society, Waverly Place ; 
the United Service Institution, Scot- 
land Yard ; the Society of Arts, Adel- 
phi ; the Soane Museum, Lincoln's 
Inn Fields ; Museum of the Asiatic 
Society, New Burlington-street ; the 
Zoological Museum, Hanover-square ; 
the Architectural Exhibition, Pall 
Mall ; the Institute of British Archi- 
tects, Lower Grosvenor-street ; Insti- 
tute of Civil Engineers, Great George- 
street, Westminster; the British Ar- 
chaeological Association, Sackville- 
street; the Archaeological Institute, 
Haymarket ; Linnsean Society, Soho 
square ; the Microscopical Society, 
Regent's Park ; the British Museum, 
Great Russell-street. 

The principal Medical establish- 
ments consist of the following : — 

The Royal College of Surgeons, 
in Lincoln's Inn Fields, (containing 
Hunter's Museum) ; Royal Medico- 



APPENDIX. 



2B9 



Chirar^cal Society ; Uie Medical So- 
ci<'ty ot London ; tlie Middlesex Hos- 
pital. Charles Jitrett, Oxford-street ; 
CliHring Cross Huipitn), West Strand ; 
London Hospital, Whitcchnpelroad ; 
University College Hospital, Gower- 
street ; that attached to King's Col- 
lei:*'. Portugal-street, Lincoln's Inn 
Fit-Ids; Westminster Hospital, Broad- 
way ; .St. George's Hospital, Hyde 
I'lirk Comer; J~t. Marys Hospital, 
I'addj^gton ; London Fever Hospital, 
Liverpool-road, Islington ; St. Luke's 
Ho-pital, Old-street, "City-road ; Con- 
sumption Hospital, Brompton ; the 
Foundling Hospital, Guildford-street, 
Brunswick-square; the Free Hospital, 
Gray's Inn-road : Caledonia Asylum, 
Copenhagen Fields ; the Jews' Hos- 
pital, Mile-end ; and French Protes- 
tant Ho.=pitHl, Old-streeL It is esti- 
mated that the charitable institiitions 
and hosi)itals of London extend to just 
five hundred, and that their annual 
disbursements amount to £1,764,733 
sterling per annum. 

Of these institutions five are Royal 
Hospitals. One for the education of 
youth (Christ's Hospital), three for 
the cure of disease (St. Bartholo- 
mew's, St. 'J'homas's, and Bethle- 
hem) ; and one, Bridewell, for the 
punishment of the idle and the dis- 
solute. Bedlam and Bridewell are 
under the same direction. 

The Churches and Chapels of the 
British Metropolis exceed five hun- 
dred in number. 

With the following list of the seve- 
ral Railroad Stations we conclude our 
di'tail.s : 

Brighton. Dover, Croydon, Green- 
wich, and North Kent Railway, from 
London-bridge (.Southwark sid<'). or 
NewcrosB Stations — for Croydon, 
Tunbridee, Maidstone, Folkesstone, 
Dover, Brighton, Shoreh«m, V ool- 
wich, Gravesend. and Rochi t-r; 
and the Steamers to Havre, etc. 



London and South Western Rail- 
way, from Waterloo Bridge-road — 
for Surrey, Sussex, Hampton Court, 
Winchester, Southampton, Dorches- 
ter, Gosport, Portsmouth ; and Steam- 
ei » to Isle of Wight, Jersey, Guernsey, 
and Havre, St.~Malo, Granville, Ex- 
mouth, Plymouth, Falmouth, Water- 
ford, Cork, Dublin, Spain, Portugal. 
Mediterranean, East Indies, West In- 
dies, and Mexico. 

Great Westeni Railway from Pad- 
dington — for Berks, Oxfordshire, 
Wilts, Somerset, Devon, and Glouces- 
tershire, Windsor, Reading. Oxford, 
Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bath. Bristol, 
Bridgewater, Taunton, Exeter, and 
Plymouth ; and the Steamers to 
Swansea, and South Wales, Cork, 
Waterford, Dublin, and New-York. 

London and North Western Rail- 
way, from Euston-square — for Ayles- 
bury, Dunstable, Bedford, Northamp- 
ton, Peterboroyph, Stamford, Rugby, 
Coventry, Leamington, Birmingham, 
Wolverhampton, Lichfield, Staflbrd, 
Crewe, Chester, Birkenhead, Con- 
way, Bangor, Holyhead, and Dublin ; 
also to Warrington, Liverpool, Man- 
che.'-t<rr, Preston, Lancaster, Kendal, 
Carlisle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stir- 
ling, Perth, Dundee, and Montrose ; 
likewise to Leicester, Nottingham. 
Lincoln, Derby, SheflSeld, Leeds, 
York, Hull. Darlington, Newcastle, 
Berwick, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. 

Eastern Counties Railway, from 
Shoreditch — for Chelmsford, Col- 
chester, Ipswich, and Bury St. Ed- 
munds ; also for Ware, Hertford, Bi- 
shop-Stortford, Newmarket, Cam- 
bridge, .St. Ives, Huntingdon, Ely, 
Norwich, Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Dere 
ham, Lynn ; also to Peteiborougli 
and Stamford. 

BlacHwall Railway, from Fen 
church-street and Minories — foi 
Blackwall, Gravesend, Margate, and 
the Scotch and French Stcamera. 



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